It’s about time principals made good on contract IOU

State Rep. K. Mark Takai finally asked a question that has been years in the making: Why hasn’t a 2004 legislative mandate that public school principals be put on performance contracts been carried out by the Department of Education?

Takai raised it in relation to a current proposal to require evaluations for public school teachers that could be tied to performance pay.

His point was that it does little good for the Legislature to pass laws that the DOE feels no obligation to carry out, as with principal contracts.

"It’s just puzzling for me to know that we have a law on the books and it’s not being followed," he said.

Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi replied, "We know that is an IOU."

See how far that one gets you the next time a cop pulls you over for failing to follow a traffic law. "I know that is an IOU, officer."

But the DOE often gets away with handing out IOUs instead of progress, and it’s a main reason our schools continue to struggle despite endless attempts to raise the quality of public education in Hawaii.

Performance contracts for principals were part of Act 51 of 2004, which Demo­crats in the Legislature promised would "reinvent education."

Other major elements of the bill — weighted student spending, meaningful spending autonomy at the school level and school-community councils — also have been subject to IOUs and not realized to the extent envisioned.

Takai’s puzzlement should extend to why legislators, after putting such a big public sell on Act 51, have done so little follow-up on the law’s spotty implementation.

More recently the DOE has issued IOUs on moves in the Legislature to increase school instructional days and hours in the wake of the Furlough Friday fiasco.

Hawaii is at risk of losing a $75 million federal Race to the Top grant essentially because the DOE gave the feds IOUs instead of meeting the goals it promised when applying for the grant.

As Takai noted, the IOU on principal contracts is especially relevant as lawmakers try to solve disputes over teacher evaluations, tenure reform and merit pay.

Principals have been among the leading advocates of holding teachers more accountable for student performance.

In a poll of 200 Hawaii principals conducted two years ago by the Principals Planning Group, principals listed more highly qualified and effective teachers as more important than greater funding in improving the public schools.

They’ve pushed for modernizing teacher tenure and giving principals more flexibility in hiring and evaluating teachers.

But it was telling that in the same poll in which they called for more teacher accountability, principals were lukewarm about performance contracts for themselves.

Responsibility starts at the top, and this IOU is long past due.

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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.