16% of educators earn top marks on new rating scale

Roughly 1 in 6 Hawaii public school teachers were deemed highly effective for the 2013-14 academic year under the state’s newly implemented teacher evaluation system, while most educators were rated as effective.

The evaluations, which were rolled out statewide last school year, were a source of angst among teachers because student test scores eventually will be tied to a teacher’s rating and determine eligibility for pay raises and termination. The so-called Educator Effectiveness System also was criticized by teachers and principals as being burdensome and overly complicated.

As part of teachers’ 2013-17 labor contract, the state and teachers union agreed to the annual high-stakes evaluations, with half of a teacher’s rating based on student growth and learning and the other half on teacher practice, based in part on classroom observations and student surveys.

Deputy Superintendent Ronn Nozoe shared evaluation results Tuesday with the Board of Education’s Human Resources Committee. Nozoe said 1,800 teachers "knocked it out of the park."

Out of 11,300 teachers who were evaluated under the EES, 1,800 teachers (16 percent) were rated as highly effective last year. An additional 9,300 (81.7 percent) received an effective rating, while 248 teachers (2.1 percent) were rated as marginal and 25 teachers (0.2 percent) were rated as unsatisfactory.

Starting this school year, only teachers rated as highly effective or effective will be eligible for pay increases and tenure in the year after the evaluation. Teachers rated as marginal will be given an opportunity to improve, while an unsatisfactory rating will be cause for termination.

Last year’s ratings had consequences for newly hired teachers: Two were terminated for unsatisfactory ratings, Nozoe said.

"Somewhere around 97, 98 percent of our teachers are effective or highly effective, and that’s what we want. I think they need to be applauded and recognized, but I think also it kind of shows that some of the fear that people had about how this would turn out were really unfounded," said Jim Williams, chairman of the BOE Human Resources Committee.

He said he believes the relatively small number of teachers in the bottom categories should help quell fears about educators getting fired for low test scores.

"One of the things we hear people complain about is that … student growth is going to overwhelm the rest of the evaluation, and just because these students did poorly on a test we’re going to get rid of this teacher," Williams said. "This whole thing only resulted in 25 teachers being rated unsatisfactory. Of course we would like none to be, but when you look at the whole universe of 11,300 teachers, that’s a very small number of teachers."

Nozoe said that even with the state’s transition to a new standardized test this year, teachers shouldn’t be concerned about any dip in test scores immediately affecting their evaluations. He said the evaluation system is designed to capture student achievement over time rather than give a one-time pass-or-fail grade.

"We now have a measure that accounts for change, so how much did a student progress in comparison to his or her peers, and what the (calculation) offers is a way for us to look at student progress over time even if you change the assessments," or test, Nozoe told reporters. "We still look at proficiency for internal purposes, but for the purpose of this evaluation, we are looking at student growth."

Overhauling teacher evaluations was a key pledge in the state’s application for its $75 million federal Race to the Top grant.Education officials say the evaluations provide feedback to help all teachers improve while identifying ineffective teachers and recognizing those who are excelling in the classroom.

"There’s always room for improvement," Nozoe said. "Ultimately, it’s not so much about getting good at the evaluation, it’s about getting really good at practice and getting better results for students. We need to continue to find ways for the evaluation to support that rather than be the focus."

By comparison, under the old teacher evaluation system teachers were rated every five years, using mostly classroom observations, as "satisfactory," "marginal" or "unsatisfactory."

In response to teacher concerns and as agreed to with the teachers union, the DOE has since made 18 changes to the EES to essentially cut in half the workload required to prepare for and perform the annual reviews starting this school year.