Public schools have made progress in making sure core classes are taught by fully certified teachers, but officials acknowledge there is lots more work to do.

Not least of the concerns, they say, is addressing the large number of teachers hired before completing a teacher education program or taking all the tests to demonstrate content knowledge in the subjects they teach.

Such "emergency hires" made up 43 percent of new teachers brought into Hawaii public school classrooms in the 2009-10 school year — down from 65 percent four years ago, according to a new Department of Education employment report.

Still, Hawaii falls short of a federal mandate that all students be taught by a "highly qualified" teacher in core subjects such as English and math.

"In a fantasy world we have people who have already passed all the tests standing up to go teach everywhere we want them to teach," said Robert Campbell, DOE executive assistant for strategic reform. "We’re a bit from that at this point."

Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, "highly qualified" teachers are those who have a bachelor’s degree or higher, are fully licensed, have demonstrated subject matter competency in the courses they are teaching and have passed required teaching exams.

Emergency hires, therefore, are considered not highly qualified. Even licensed teachers could be deemed not highly qualified if teaching outside their area of expertise.

While Hawaii falls short of the 100 percent goal, it has seen improvement in recent years. Last school year, 81 percent of classes statewide were taught by highly qualified teachers, compared with 74 percent in the 2008-09 school year and 70 percent in 2007-08.

And the percentage of new hires who are licensed has risen to 57 percent in 2009-10 from 35 percent in the 2005-06 school year. The increase is largely attributable to fewer teachers being hired overall because of the recession, cutting the need for emergency hires.

While the number of licensed teachers hired each year has held steady at about 500 to 550, the number of emergency hires declined from 1,050 four years ago to 382 last year.

As part of the state’s $75 million Race to the Top education reform grant, the DOE has pledged to boost student achievement through a host of initiatives aimed at ensuring all schools have effective teachers who meet No Child Left Behind requirements.

Those initiatives include offering bonuses of $3,000 to highly qualified teachers in hard-to-staff schools and bolstering other methods of recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers, such as adding alternate routes to teacher certification.

Campbell said the state also plans to work more closely with teachers to help them "overcome whatever obstacle" they have to becoming highly qualified.

Wil Okabe, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said the department and union are in collective bargaining discussions on some of those key issues.

He said incentives are important to keep good teachers in place.

Okabe also pointed out that teachers who put off retirement because of the recession will likely start leaving over the next few years, potentially creating a wave that could slow DOE efforts to put highly qualified teachers in every classroom.

At some schools the shortage of highly qualified teachers remains acute.

Just 46 percent of classes at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School were taught by highly qualified teachers in the 2009-10 school year.

At Kahuku, Pearl City and Waialua high schools, the figure was 69 percent.

Hawaii has for years had a lower percentage of classes taught by highly qualified teachers than the national average.

Officials say part of the problem is Hawaii’s high teacher turnover, something the DOE attributes to the large number of teachers from the mainland and Hawaii’s high cost of living.

Nationally, 96 percent of core academic classes were taught by highly qualified teachers in 2008-09, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Campbell said one way the DOE is attacking the shortage of highly qualified teachers is rethinking the routes to teacher certification.

In the coming school year, the state plans to kick off a "residency-based alternative education program" to attract career changers with on-the-job training that would end with them receiving a teaching certificate.

"The traditional route (of teacher certification) just isn’t producing the number of teachers that we need," said Campbell.

Most new teachers are young. In 2009-10, 70 percent of newly hired Hawaii teachers had no previous teaching experience, the DOE employment report shows. More than half were between 21 and 30 years old, and nearly one-quarter were between 21 and 25.

Of the emergency hires brought in last school year, 75 had not completed a teacher education program.

The majority, about 182, were unlicensed because they had not taken all the necessary teaching exams for licensure.

The DOE can consider emergency hires when it is unable to get enough applicants who are fully licensed. Emergency hires have three years to complete the requirements needed to secure a teaching license.

Meanwhile, the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board is trying to streamline its licensure requirements.

Part of that work includes surveying requirements for teacher licensure in other states and figuring out how they match up to Hawaii’s standards.

Lynn Hammonds, executive director of the board, said the body is trying to ease the path to licensure.

"On the other hand, they have to uphold the integrity of the process," she said.