Mixed grades for state's schools

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

The day after the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation gave Hawai'i a flunking grade for its math standards, Education Week has awarded the public schools a B-plus for standards and accountability.

Hawai'i stayed the same or moved up in all categories in "Quality Counts 2004: No Small Change, Targeting Money Toward Student Performance."

"It does seem to be recognizing the development of Hawai'i's state standards and over the years their assessment of our standards has improved tremendously," said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen. "To have a B-plus in this year's report is an acknowledgement that our standards are more fully implemented and more fully developed."

In addition to improvements in standards ö up from a C-plus ö the state maintained its A rating for equity in student spending, in part because as a single unified school district there is no disparity between students across the state.

The state also received a C-minus for its efforts to improve teacher quality and a C for school climate.

Education Week, a newspaper widely read by educators and policy-makers, has released the national analysis of school performance, "Quality Counts," for nine years. Data are collected from the most recent comparable national statistics, which can be several years old.

The standards and accountability rating comes from the American Federation of Teachers, which looks to see if the states have clear and specific standards in language arts, math, science, social studies and history.

Unlike the Fordham Foundation, which gave the state an F for its math standards and a C for its language arts standards, "With the ratings we're going on, Hawai'i is doing fine in English and math," said Melissa McCabe, senior research associate for Education Week.

While the scores for improving teacher quality moved up slightly from a D-plus to a C-minus, the report suggests Hawai'i would have a better grade if it established performance assessments for experienced teachers and required a set number of hours for student teaching and mentoring for all new teachers, McCabe said.

Another improvement could be holding educational institutions accountable for the teachers they produce. "Hawai'i has started to identify its low-performing programs, but it doesn't publish (licensing test) pass rates of teachers by institution ... to hold the institutions accountable for the quality of their program," McCabe said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.