Several public middle and high schools are "significantly far" from meeting a state mandate to lengthen their school day, education officials told lawmakers last week.

By the start of the 2014-15 school year, 101 secondary schools will need to offer at least 51⁄2 hours of instruction, on average, each day. Only two schools now meet that minimum: Hana High on Maui and Castle High School.

The DOE did not have an updated breakdown of instructional hours at each secondary school but, on average, schools this year are coming up short by about 30 minutes a day, or 100 hours per school year.

"Some are within 5 minutes or 20 minutes a week" of reaching the minimum, Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said during a legislative briefing Monday.

"There are some that are a number of hours off a week," she said, acknowledging a difference of as much as 220 hours per year among some secondary schools. That amounts to some students getting up to six fewer hours of classroom time per week than their peers.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Jill Tokuda said the wide-ranging gap highlights the need for the mandate.

"Most schools are really way off from meeting the minimum time and some drastic steps need to be taken," Tokuda said after the briefing. "The 220-hour difference between some schools — that’s eight weeks a year. That’s staggering and it’s actually unacceptable."

But, she said, "I do think the DOE knows the urgency and sees the opportunity to make this a huge gain and a huge win for students."

A law passed in 2010 in the wake of teacher furloughs required that all schools have at least 180 instructional days a year and imposed minimum instructional minutes for Hawaii schools to meet or exceed national levels. It applies to about 220 schools; charter and multitrack schools are exempt.

The law is being phased in, with all elementary schools offering since last year at least five hours and five minutes of instructional time each day, on average. The law increases the required hours to at least six hours of instructional time for elementary and secondary schools for the 2016-17 school year.

Department of Education officials say increasing instruction time across elementary schools was less challenging because those students have a single class, while middle, intermediate and high schoolers have multiple classes and individualized schedules.

Matayoshi said it’s been difficult to provide guidance to secondary schools because there’s confusion over exactly how to calculate minutes of instructional time.

Another challenge has been figuring out ways to increase instructional time without exceeding teachers’ contracted seven-hour workday.

To help facilitate the rollout in secondary schools, Matayoshi said, the DOE will convene a "working group" made up of teachers, principals, school registrars, parents and national experts to recommend the best strategies.

"With each school having a different schedule … that’s why we’re talking about trying to get a group together and trying to look at the picture a little more holistically," Matayoshi said.

Lawmakers are also trying to help with legislation that would broaden the definition of "instructional time."

Under the current law, instructional hours are defined for all schools as time when students "are engaged in learning activities including regularly-scheduled instruction and learning assessments within the curriculum."

Tokuda said, "While trying to create a base minimum, you also want to make sure that the quality is there, that learning is taking place. Broadening this definition and providing some flexibility, I think, will enable the DOE to increase opportunities where students learn best and increase access to those teachable moments."

For example, Senate Bill 238, which Tokuda co-sponsored, would allow student advisory time, technology-assisted learning and time spent on project-based assignments to count toward instructional hours at secondary schools.

SB 238 and its companion, House Bill 60, are moving through the Legislature.

"This is going to allow us to elevate and give credit to those experiences and opportunities where students are engaged in learning in some nontraditional settings," Tokuda said.

Rep. Takashi Ohno, a former elementary school teacher and vice chairman of the House Education Committee, added: "It just simply isn’t enough to add more hours without considering how those hours will be used and ensuring that teachers can do their job. Increasing instructional hours is an important part of improving our schools, but even more important is making sure that time is spent wisely."

Along those lines, the DOE said it is analyzing data to find any correlations between how schools use instructional time and student performance.

At Castle High, one of the two schools already meeting the mandate, Principal Meredith Maeda said the Kaneohe campus implemented changes about four years ago to maximize student learning time.

He said "it really is a challenge," but the school increased classes to seven from six periods, modified students’ schedules to cut out so-called passing time between classes, trimmed the lunch period and offered tutoring at the end of the day.