Time to settle on teacher evaluations

Public school teachers are under pressure this week to agree to an eventual performance-based compensation to survive the "high risk" status since Hawaii was included among select states winning Race to the Top grants. After months of contention that have jeopardized high hopes and real achievements as well as federal dollars, the time is overdue for the state and teachers’ union to end an embarrassing "last, best and final" contract stalemate — crucial if Hawaii’s public schools system is serious about pursuing higher-quality education.

It would, simply, be a tremendous show of unity and confidence by local stakeholders to U.S. Department of Education reviewers now in town evaluating Hawaii’s progress.

In order to receive the $75 million economic stimulus award from the U.S. DOE, Hawaii has to overcome a number of issues earning it "high-risk" status last December. At that point, the federal department stated that Hawaii "must provide clear and compelling evidence" of improvement in more than 30 areas, most glaringly the issue of teacher assessments.

Hawaii and Florida are the only two of the 10 Race to the Top winners named in two rounds of competitive grants that failed to meet subsequent expectations. A report released Monday by the Center on American Progress, a Washington, D.C., education policy think tank, said Hawaii "is headed in the right direction. But clearly there are still significant promises to keep — and challenges to address — in the months and years ahead."

Most notable is the lingering disagreement over union contract negotiations between the state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association. The main dispute is a proposed transition to performance- based compensation and tenure rules. Wil Okabe, the union’s president, said this week that the union "has shown some good-faith effort" toward pledges to provide "what needs to be done" to confirm the federal grant.

The state Senate Ways and Means Committee was to decide today whether to approve House Bill 2527, which would require the state Department of Education to create a performance management program that includes an evaluation for teachers. Gov. Neil Abercrombie favors the measure as specifying "student learning and growth as criteria for evaluation of educators." Okabe complains that the bill is "a way to circumvent the collective bargaining process."

While the Department of Education favors the legislation, approval of that bill could interfere with that negotiation process. Instead, the measure should be used to put pressure on the teachers union to accept the teacher evaluations proposed by the department.

Hawaii has struggled in making pledges under the federal grant requirements and "has fulfilled many of its Race to the Top commitments that do not require a collective bargaining agreement to move forward," the Center on American progress noted.

We hope that visiting federal education officials can see that much progress has indeed been made, such as in targeted "zones of school innovation" like Wai­anae and the Kau-Pahoa area of Hawaii island.

However, no issue has been as difficult as the labor dispute with teachers and the union’s refusal to agree on a contract. While federal officials are in the islands, this is the week to agree on teacher evaluations in the contract to avoid legislative action and assure fulfillment of the Race to the Top grant — which brings with it $75 million, yes, but also hopes that progress can occur for the sake of student learning.