(a) To strengthen the alignment between career and college ready curriculum and state and local academic standards and increase students’ opportunities for participating in applied and experiential learning in a nontraditional setting, school districts are encouraged to provide programs such as magnet schools, language immersion programs, project-based learning, accelerated learning, college prep schools, career and technical education, Montessori schools, military schools, work-based schools, and place-based learning. Districts may provide such programs independently or in cooperation with other districts, at a school single site, for particular grades, or throughout the district. In addition to meeting the other accountability measures under chapter 120B, districts may declare that a student meets or exceeds specific academic standards required for graduation under the rigorous course of study waiver in section 120B.021, subdivision 1a, where appropriate.

(b) The board of a district that chooses to participate must publicly adopt and review a plan for providing a program under this section. The plan must: define the program and its structure; describe the enrollment process; identify measures and processes for regularly assessing, evaluating, and publicly reporting on program efficacy and use summary data to show student progress and outcomes; and establish a data-informed public process for modifying and revising the plan as needed. A district must publish its plan contents and evaluation outcomes on the district website.

(c) For purposes of further integrating experiential and applied learning into career and college ready curricula, the commissioner may request program information from providing districts under this section.