Administrators at the 18 public schools trying out a new teacher evaluation system need as much as three hours per teacher to conduct the comprehensive observation that is a central component of the process.
As the state Department of Education prepares to expand the system to 64 more schools in the coming school year before taking it statewide in the 2013-14 school year, some principals worry about how they will be able to squeeze the observations into their already packed schedules.
"Our plates are totally full," said Darrel Galera, principal of Moanalua High School and member of a statewide coalition of principals. "Everybody works 12- to 14-hour days already. We’re just asking, What does it mean for the actual workload on the principal?"
At present, only probationary or poorly rated teachers are evaluated annually. Tenured teachers are evaluated on a five-year cycle.
The current observation process, which the department says is too subjective, takes less time to complete.
Department officials agree the new procedures are time-consuming, in part because they require a pre- and post-conference with the teacher, and say they are exploring options that would give principals more time to be "instructional leaders."
That would mean reconsidering what principals do and almost certainly shifting some duties elsewhere.
"We’re paying them good money for their instructional knowledge, but they’re spending most of their time doing noninstructional things," said Yvonne Lau, administrator of the department’s performance management section. "We really need to rethink that."
Lau emphasized that the thrust of the pilot program is to work out how the new system will operate — and deal with issues before the evaluations are put into effect. "We are looking at trying to solve this problem. Everything is on the table."
Lau said the observations are taking as long as three hours in part because the framework for evaluation is new.
As teachers and administrators become familiar with what’s expected, the time required is expected to decrease. Lau said a streamlined observation should probably take about 30 minutes, not counting the teacher conferences.
The observation is based on a nationally recognized system. Teachers are rated as unsatisfactory, basic, proficient or distinguished based on such classroom elements as "managing student behavior" and "engaging students in learning."
All teachers will be rated annually based on the common observation framework along with measures of student academic growth and a student survey. (Using student growth to evaluate teachers has been the most controversial element of the new rating system).
Principals say they are not opposed to the new system and are interested in providing more informed evaluations to teachers.
"It’s something that’s got to be done," said Randall Miura, principal at Leihoku Elementary, one of the 18 schools where the new system is being tried out this school year.
Miura, who is also acting Nanakuli-Waianae complex-area superintendent, declined to talk at length about the process.
Asked how he makes time for the evaluations, Miura said, "I’m like all other principals. We just do it."
Al Carganilla, principal of Farrington High, which will test the evaluations next school year, said moving to the new system is "really going to be a team effort."
The school has 180 teachers, who will be evaluated by Carganilla and his five vice principals.
"Basically, every school day we’ll be doing an evaluation," Carganilla said. "We’re anxious about the whole thing because we just don’t know how it’s going to turn out. We know the ‘what.’ I think the ‘how’ is what we’re going to work on."
Carganilla said the school is looking to build "leadership capacity" and is looking at whether any responsibilities previously given to administrators could be shifted to nonadministrators.
Meredith Maeda, principal at Castle High, which will also join the pilot program in the coming school year, said he has heard about the substantial time needed.
"It is a concern," he said.
He added that the school might have an advantage because administrators already regularly conduct classroom "walk-throughs" with teachers and follow up with five- to 10-minute coaching sessions.
State law requires that teachers be evaluated annually, but yearly evaluations had not been implemented because the department said principals did not have the time.
Only principals or vice principals can evaluate teachers.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association predicts that requiring all teachers be evaluated yearly will require additional administrative staff at every school.
"The administrators tasked with performing a large portion of teacher evaluations are already overworked and unable to perform annual evaluations for probationary teachers every year" using the current process, said HSTA President Wil Okabe in testimony at the Legislature this month on a failed measure that would have required the move to a performance-management system for teachers.
Okabe could not be reached for additional comment.
Redoing the evaluation system for teachers and requiring that all teachers be evaluated annually was among the key pledges the state made to receive a $75 million federal Race to the Top grant aimed at boosting student achievement and improving teaching.
Under Race to the Top, the state has also promised to tie the new evaluations to personnel decisions, including those regarding compensation, tenure and dismissal.
Like Hawaii, other states (including other Race to the Top states) are also moving to more rigorous evaluations for teachers, and some administrators are growing concerned about the time required. In some states, such as Tennessee, teachers must be evaluated several times through the year.
Last year, 22 states required that all teachers be evaluated at least once a year, up from 15 in 2009, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Don Horner, chairman of the state Board of Education, said supporting teachers should be the highest priority for principals and that their responsibilities should reflect that.
"Certainly we need to take some of the administrative burden off our principals so they can do their most important task," he said. "That’s why we’re doing a pilot, to identify gaps that we may have."
