BOE policy plan would include new evaluations of educators

As part of a push to show progress on key education reforms, the Board of Education is looking to make it board policy that the state move to a new evaluation system for teachers and principals no later than July 1, 2014.

Proposals approved by a BOE committee Tuesday would require the state Department of Education to adopt new evaluations for teachers and principals that take into account student academic growth and then use those evaluations in high-stakes decisions on issues such as salaries, tenure and dismissal.

Jim Williams, chairman of the BOE Human Resources Committee, said shifting to a performance management system is about using "information collected about student performance and adult behaviors to improve the system."

He added, at the committee meeting Tuesday, that "it’s not about the cub becoming the bear. It’s more like the caterpillar becoming the butterfly. You end up with something that looks and behaves totally different."

The full board still must vote on the issue.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association expressed concern about the proposed policy, which comes as the union is trying to determine its next steps after teachers overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract last month that would have moved them to performance-based evaluations tied to tenure and annual raises.

"The timing (of the proposals) isn’t good at all," said Al Naga­sako, executive director of HSTA. "It really doesn’t help to build that spirit of collaboration. We’ve been trying to work collaboratively with the department as much as we can."

The union has been holding meetings with teachers statewide to hear their concerns on the proposed six-year contract, and Nagasako said evaluations were a key worry. Teachers "needed much more clarity on the evaluation piece," he said.

The state pledged to shift teachers and principals to a performance management system as part of a host of ambitious reforms under its $75 million Race to the Top grant. To get the grant, Hawaii also promised to turn around low-performing schools and boost the achievement of all students.

The BOE is looking at writing into board policy a requirement for revamped teacher evaluations amid growing concerns about the future of Hawaii’s Race grant, which the U.S. Department of Education has warned will be lost if more progress isn’t made. The state has struggled to meet its own Race grant "deliverables," including reaching a labor agreement on revamped teacher evaluations.

There’s hope that requiring the revamped evaluations in BOE policy will help convince federal reviewers, who will visit Hawaii next month, that the state is able to follow through on its pledges. There are also efforts to require under state law the implementation of a performance management system for teachers.

"We’re trying to see how we can move forward on all fronts," said schools Superintendent Kathryn Mata­yo­shi on Tuesday. "Everybody is working to do what they can. Hopefully, we’ll get to be all on the same page."