Hawaii’s statewide Board of Education will be making a grave mistake if it allows the leadership of the Department of Education to dismiss an independent survey that conveys the dismay of the principals who are actually leading Hawaii’s public schools.

Rather than assuming a defensive posture, state Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and her leadership team should digest these poll findings with an open mind, and take immediate steps to improve a top-down management structure that, to hear a significant number of principals tell it, is failing to address serious concerns about the sustainability of Race to the Top reforms.

The school board must compel such an honest assessment among the DOE brass. Gov. Neil Abercrombie, as the ultimate arbiter now that Hawaii has an appointed school board, likewise should keep the importance of school-level empowerment high on his radar, lest the negative factors detailed in the survey go uncorrected and derail Hawaii’s public schools from much-needed academic improvement.

Educational creativity, innovation and achievement must flourish at the school level, among the students, teachers, principals and parents who have the most at stake. Every school community is different, and programs proven to work at a particular campus should not fall by the wayside in favor of one-size-fits-all formulas.

Moreover, spearheading difficult and lasting school-level reform from a central state office — as the DOE is attempting to do — can succeed over the long term only if the educators actually teaching the students and managing the campuses believe in the overall direction of the school system and trust the leadership at the top. This independent report clearly raises doubts about that, contradictory surveys conducted by the DOE notwithstanding.

Recently retired principal Darrel Galera conducted the principals’ survey online April 18-28, collecting anonymous responses to 13 questions gauging campus morale, resources and other topics. Critics may claim that Galera, who has long promoted school-level autonomy as the surest path to student achievement and was widely praised as principal of Moanalua High School, has an ax to grind now that he’s left the DOE. But Galera used the same method to gather data when he was with the department, and the DOE deemed those findings legitimate; the technique should not be discounted now.

The principals of all 255 regular public schools were emailed a survey invitation, and 160 filled out the poll, a striking 63 percent return rate. Of those who responded, nearly 65 percent said they feel less empowered to make decisions in the best interests of their schools. Nearly 76 percent said they believe that the implementation of Race to the Top reforms, including a new teacher evaluation system, are hurting their schools.

Nearly 66 percent said they could not critique the DOE’s implementation of Race to the Top without "fear of reprisal, retaliation or being unfairly evaluated on my performance evaluation."

About 22 percent of the principals said at least one of their school’s employees was currently on paid leave and under investigation by the DOE.

The school board must direct DOE leadership to take immediate steps to ease this demoralized climate of fear and empower the principals to be the educational leaders they must be — that’s the only way Hawaii’s students will thrive in the long term. So much attention has been paid to important, statewide Race to the Top directives over the past few years that what principals decried as a steady and alarming decline in school-level autonomy went largely unremarked. In that sense, the principals’ survey serves as a crucial wakeup call. True educational improvement occurs among the grassroots at the school level — not among the number-crunchers at the central office — and confident, innovative, empowered principals are key to that success.

Hearing the principals out will not lead to a wholesale dismantling of Hawaii’s hard-won education reforms, including evaluation systems for teachers and principals. On the contrary, critical feedback is essential to make these systems effective. Obviously, many principals don’t believe their input is welcome at the state office. That’s got to change. It’s time for the DOE to listen.