The U.S. Department of Education has approved several amendments to the state’s Race to the Top education reform plans, but local officials stress the changes are small and do not alter the goals of Hawaii’s $75 million Race grant.

The amendments, approved this month, include changes to new assessments, funding reallocations for positions and tweaks to Hawaii’s high school diploma requirements.

The Hawaii Department of Education has so far had three rounds of amendments approved, and officials said more changes are pending.

Other Race to the Top states have also sought amendments to their "scopes of work."

Stephen Schatz, head of the DOE’s Office of Strategic Reform, said Hawaii’s changes are mainly "time-line shifts."

"There are some strategic changes, but … we haven’t changed our commitment to the outcomes in the race nor the tenets of the reform itself," he said.

Hawaii was one of 10 winners — nine states and the District of Columbia — to be awarded competitive Race to the Top money in a second round of grants last year. (Two states won in the first round.)

Hawaii’s reforms are designed to boost student achievement, improve teacher effectiveness and turn around the lowest-performing schools.

Amendments approved this month allow the state Department of Education to:

» Adopt national reading and math assessments based on new standards when they become available, rather than having the department create its own. This change will free up $7 million in federal funds, which will instead be used for "assessment literacy" and end-of-course exam projects.

» Assign a task force to make recommendations on potential special designations for high school diplomas, including those for honors and academic pathways.

» Expand the time line for teacher training on new common core national standards, which started rolling out in the islands this school year.

Meanwhile, federal officials last month also authorized the department to change how it planned to spend nearly $1 million in federal Race money.

The state got approval to fund two educational officer positions for four years with about $806,000 in Race funding. The total includes wages and fringe benefits.

The educational officers are providing "high-level support" in the Office of Strategic Reform.

The money for the positions was freed up by late hiring for other positions and because Hawaii used state money to fund about $350,000 in preschool subsidies. The DOE had originally planned to use federal dollars for the subsidies but found that was not allowed.

Another amendment allowed the department to shift $160,000 set aside for travel expenses for neighbor island advisory groups to funding a new Race-related communications position in the department for two years. Instead of traveling, the advisory groups will instead use teleconferencing.