School reform quixotic, report declares

Sweeping education reforms that Hawaii and other states promised in return for millions in federal Race to the Top dollars are "unrealistic and impossible" to achieve, a new report issued Thursday argues.

The 111-page report concluded that the Obama administration’s $4 billion competitive-grant initiative — designed to spark reform in public schools and boost student achievement — is fundamentally flawed and that "even in the best of circumstances, Race to the Top could not achieve what it sets out to do."

The study was conducted by Elaine Weiss, national coordinator for the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, a campaign launched in 2008 by the Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute. Weiss’ group supports dealing with social and economic disadvantages to close student achievement gaps.

Weiss says the Race program — in year three of four years of funding — is flawed in that it "mandates that states fix a complicated, expensive set of problems on the cheap and in an unrealistically short period." She added that "states promised to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps to degrees that would be virtually or literally impossible even with much longer timelines and larger funding boosts."

The U.S. Department of Education disputes the report’s findings, and Hawaii school officials say the state is seeing results attributable to its $75 million Race grant.

Race to the Top was created in 2009 using federal economic stimulus funds. Hawaii in 2010 was one of nine states and the District of Columbia to win a grant.

The state Department of Education pledged to use its four-year, $75 million award to turn around low-performing schools, boost student achievement, better evaluate teacher effectiveness and steer poorly performing ones out of the classroom.

To date, Hawaii has spent about $42 million, or 56 percent of its grant. The report pointed out that Hawaii’s grant, when broken down by year, represents only about 1 percent of the school system’s annual budget — a trivial amount compared with the huge reforms promised, the report said.

In December 2011 Hawaii was the first state to have its grant placed on "high-risk" status by the U.S. Department of Education because of the slow pace of implementing reforms. The state risked losing the money but made enough prog­ress toward reform to have the restriction partially lifted in February and completely removed in late July.

Weiss called Hawaii’s goals "very ambitious," including a pledge to get all students to 90 percent proficiency in both math and reading by 2014. "This requires an increase of 40 percent in reading, where only 65 percent of students are currently proficient, and over 100 percent in math, where the current level is just 44 percent," Weiss wrote.

Hawaii students are actually performing better than the report indicates.

Overall, Hawaii schools edged up in both reading and math proficiency for the 2012-13 school year, which ended in May. Seventy-two percent of students tested proficient in reading, up from 71 percent last year, while 60 percent of students tested proficient in math, up from 59 percent.

Teacher evaluations that factor in student achievement were another promise. The state department secured that piece in a four-year contract teachers ratified earlier this year.

Other key reform efforts include boosting classroom rigor by implementing nationally crafted academic standards adopted by 45 states (known as the Common Core standards); improving student performance data collection; and reorganizing the department to better monitor and support reform.

Stephen Schatz, the assistant superintendent overseeing reform efforts, has said that the state’s unique structure of a single, statewide school system can make reform a challenge.

"When we reform our system, we’re not just talking about the policy level; we’re talking about every school and every classroom," he told the Star-Advertiser when Hawaii’s "high-risk" penalty was lifted. "We have a long ways to go to get to the place where all of our students are graduating ready for college. But we know we have a good plan, and we have an ambitious agenda and we’re heading in the right direction."

He said the grant is helping transform education in Hawaii.

"The Race to the Top Grant has helped us to set our expectations high for students and educators. We are beginning to see the fruits of our labor, with more students going to college, higher test scores and a decreasing achievement gap," he said Thursday.

To Schatz’s point, more public school graduates enrolled in two- and four-year colleges last year, and over the past two years the state as a whole narrowed by 12 percent the achievement gap between high-needs students — English-language learners, those economically disadvantaged or with disabilities — and their less needy peers.

Weiss acknowledged some successes in some states but said the Race program’s policy agenda is too narrow because it targets teachers, principals and schools when "the opportunity gaps it aims to close have their roots mostly outside of school walls."

"As the consequences of the quick fixes instituted through RTTT begin to play out, one hope is that the lessons set out in this report will finally trigger the recognition that long-term, comprehensive approaches are needed to attain real educational improvement," she said.

The U.S. Department of Education defended the program Thursday, saying it is seeing improvements.

"It is too early to measure the student-level impact of this innovative program, but even at this point, we are seeing promising signs, as states pioneer systems to raise standards, strengthen teaching, and prepare students for college and career," spokes­man Cameron French said in an email. "No one ever doubted that change this big would be hard, and while we have worked with states to make necessary adjustments, the big picture is that states’ efforts are largely in keeping with the scope and timeline of their plans."