projectcert

All states / Minnesota

Minnesota

Verified against current sources (2026-05-10) Cite this page ↓

Minnesota offers Bilingual Education as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is a standalone teaching license. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2023, 9.6% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

9.6%
classified ELs (2023-10-01)
view trend →
Bil + ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual Education License

  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Unknown
Subject test
Unknown
Language proficiency
Required

Rule 8710.4150 — bilingual/bicultural is an add-on requiring a prerequisite license (elementary or 5–12/7–12 in math, science, social studies, or health). Subp. 4 enumerates 9 competency areas. Subp. 3 requires ACTFL advanced oral + advanced written, or schooling conducted in the target language. MTLE Bilingual exists but is not uniformly required for completers of MN-state-approved programs (PELSB Compliance Manual FY25, effective 2023-08-01).

K-12 ESL

  • Standalone certification
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Required
Subject test
Unknown

Rule 8710.4400 — ESL is its own licensure field with its own student-teaching requirement. Subp. 3 enumerates 10 competency areas (A–J); subp. 3a requires ≥100 hrs field-based experience plus a 12-week full-time student-teaching placement spanning K–6, 5–8, and 9–12.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

Rule 8710.2000 Standard 4.A names the MN English Language Development Standards Framework; all licensed teachers must understand it, but this does not rise to a sheltered-instruction mandate of the AZ/CA/MA/NV kind.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2014.

Source: sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

ELP assessment

Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.

ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.

Source: wida.wisc.edu (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.

  1. Minnesota Educational Equity for Limited English Proficient Students Act (Ch. 580, Laws of 1980)

    Minnesota's first statewide EL statute (codified initially at Minn. Stat. §§ 124.273, then renumbered into §§ 124D.59-.65) committed state aid to districts operating Educational Programs for English Learners (EPELs). The 1980 act made participation voluntary for districts but tied state funding to identification, language assessment, and instructional services for ELs — establishing the funding-and-accountability architecture that the 2014 LEAPS Act later modernized. Districts retained discretion over program model (TBE, dual-language, ESL, sheltered), consistent with Minnesota's locally-controlled school-governance tradition.

    revisor.mn.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. LEAPS Act enacted; state Seal of Biliteracy authorized

    The Learning English for Academic Proficiency and Success (LEAPS) Act (2014 Minn. Laws ch. 272) reorganized Minnesota's EL framework and authorized the state Seal of Biliteracy. The seal language was subsequently codified at Minn. Stat. 120B.022 subd. 1b by 1Sp2015 c 3 art 2 s 2 and amended through 2024.

    revisor.mn.gov (opens in a new tab) · education.mn.gov (opens in a new tab)

  3. EPAA 29(100) document analysis (Leider, Colombo & Nerlino, 2021)

    Leider, Colombo & Nerlino published in Education Policy Analysis Archives 29(100) a comprehensive document analysis of every state and DC's bilingual, ELD/ESL, and SEI teacher-credentialing requirements, professional teaching standards mentions, and EL-percentage figures, based on primary SEA sources collected October–December 2019. The 2019 coding of Minnesota's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.

    doi.org (opens in a new tab)

  4. Rule 8710.2000 (Standards of Effective Practice) revised to name MN ELD Standards Framework

    PELSB's revision of Rule 8710.2000 Standard 4.A explicitly names "Minnesota's English Language Development Standards Framework," strengthening the textual basis for `professionalStandardsMentions.el: true`. Standards 1.A, 1.D, 1.H, 1.I, 2.A, 4.E, 4.F, and 5.E carry diverse/cultural/linguistic language.

    revisor.mn.gov (opens in a new tab)

  5. MTLE content/pedagogy/basic-skills tests no longer required for MN program completers

    Per the PELSB FY25 Licensure Compliance Manual, completers of Minnesota-state-approved licensure programs are no longer required to pass MTLE content, pedagogy, or basic-skills tests effective 2023-08-01. This grounds `bilingual.requirements.test: null` and `eld.requirements.test: null`: the MTLE Bilingual and MTLE ESL exams exist but are not uniformly required.

    mn.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Minnesota Department of Education (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  2. [2] Leider, Colombo & Nerlino (2021), EPAA 29(100). Tables 2-5 + Appendix A. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  3. [3] Minnesota Administrative Rule 8710.4400 (ESL teacher licensure) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] Minnesota Administrative Rule 8710.4150 (Bilingual/bicultural teacher add-on) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] Minnesota Administrative Rule 8710.2000 (Standards of Effective Practice) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] Minn. Stat. 120B.022 (State Seals of Bilingual and World Language Proficiency) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] PELSB FY25 Licensure Compliance Manual (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] MDE — English Learner Education program page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] MDE — Bilingual / World Language Seals (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20 (English Learners in Public Schools, fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  11. [11] Minnesota Department of Education, English Learners in Minnesota Report 2023-24 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-10

Cite this page

Site content is published under CC BY 4.0. When citing a fact from this page, please cite both projectcert and the original Leider et al. (2021) paper the dataset extends.

APA
projectcert. (2026, May 10). Minnesota EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/mn/
Leider, C. M., Colombo, M. W., & Nerlino, E. (2021). Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(100). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5279
BibTeX
@misc{projectcert_mn_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Minnesota EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/mn/},
  urldate = {2026-05-10},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-10}
}
@article{leider2021decentralization,
  author  = {Leider, Christine M. and Colombo, Michaela W. and Nerlino, Erika},
  title   = {{Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs?}},
  journal = {Education Policy Analysis Archives},
  volume  = {29},
  number  = {100},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.14507/epaa.29.5279}
}

See the methodology for how these data were collected, or the glossary for term definitions.