More is not always better where instructional time is concerned, but minimum standards still are important, and they certainly should be maintained.

Clearly, the state Department of Education has a long way to go before that modest goal can be reached. State law now mandates that by 2014, secondary schools must offer at least 51⁄2 hours of instruction, on average, each day.

According to a report filed at the request of state lawmakers, however, the amount of actual instructional time seems to vary widely. Measured in weekly minutes of instruction, last school year Hawaii public high schools ranged from 1,632 at Farrington to 1,255 weekly minutes at Waiakea. There is not a linear connection between academic achievement and hours of schooling — Farrington did not meet its adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets, while Moanalua, reporting only 1,370 minutes, did.

Of course, many variables affect student success besides time spent. But if the DOE hopes to boost results at more schools, applying successful strategies where they can be effective, it would help to level the playing field by making at least some criteria essential, and instructional time as part of the baseline makes sense.

The lawmakers who ordered up this study seemed less than satisfied with the results, and with good reason. There’s no plan of action, for starters, and the schools needed better guidance on what can count toward their required minutes.

The report defines instruction as time spent in homeroom and in class, "scheduled activity periods," study hall and student progress reporting. Legislators asked the department to make other potential time additions, suggesting that time spent in mentorships, taking online classes or extracurricular activities could be included. Those issues don’t figure into the report, which, said state Sen. Jill Tokuda, was a "missed opportunity."

Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, is right about that, and on another point. The DOE expressed concern about the challenge of reaching the minimum bar and estimated the cost of that at about $50 million. They haven’t explained why those funds are needed, Tokuda said, given that some schools are coming close to goal without added funds. Such questions will have to be answered when the state Legislature takes up the supplemental budget request after the session opens in a few short weeks.

Some schools are rightly exempt from the mandate because students are assigned to multiple tracks on separate schedules; the multitrack approach enables the school to accommodate more students than the facility was designed to handle. But other schools are following myriad bell schedules for reasons that are less clear.

Such variation has been allowed to give schools a measure of autonomy. While that’s the right instinct in the overall drive for innovation, public schools may have reached the point where it can no longer afford it. According to the report, eight high schools have six periods, 11 have seven, and the rest block time in various configurations. As DOE official Clayton Kaninau correctly observes, there’s "a need to move to uniformity" — on this score, at least.

At least the report, incomplete as it is, was done now, allowing time for adjustments to be made. The conversation needs to continue in the conference rooms of the state Capitol, with steps taken to help schools hit this target before the 2012-13 academic year begins.