Posted on: Thursday, January 6, 2005

Schools showing signs of progress

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

Hawai'i's public schools have made strides toward improving standards, accountability and teacher quality as well as per pupil spending — moving up from 40th to 35th in the nation in that category — according to an annual report card from Education Week.

The B-plus in standards and accountability is a marked turnaround from two years ago, when the state received a D-plus from Education Week, a newspaper widely read by educators and policymakers.

The ratings follow yesterday's review by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which flunked the state for its math standards and gave the state a C for language arts.

Education Week bases its standards and accountability scores on assessments by the American Federation of Teachers, which looks for clear and specific standards in language arts, math, science, social studies and history.

"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.

Clear standards are critical, since the federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates that all schools must demonstrate annual progress toward meeting the state's targets, with 100 percent student proficiency by 2014.

Greg Knudsen, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the state gets its standards validated by professional organizations, rather than these kinds of studies, but the department is still pleased with the latest Education Week marks.

"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," he said. "To have a

B-plus in this year's report is an acknowledgment that our standards are more fully implemented and more fully developed."

In addition to improvements in standards, 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.

Teacher quality

While the improving-teacher-quality scores were a slight improvement from last year's D-plus, McCabe said the state could raise its scores further by establishing performance assessments for experienced teachers and requiring a set number of hours for student teaching and mentoring for all new teachers.

Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said the union would be open to discussing a second level of licensing, which fits into the performance-based salary schedule it would like to see implemented. However, she warned, "We don't want it to be just another thing that gets added to teachers' plates. They're drowning right now."

As for mandating mentoring for new teachers, "We'll be the first in line to say yes," she said.

According to Husted, the Windward school district's peer assistance program has had stunning success, and retention rates have improved in the Leeward district where HSTA has its own mentoring program.

"We think it ought to be mandatory for every new employee that comes into the DOE to be assigned a mentor," she 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.

School climate

The school climate rating, which remains a C, was based in part on data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress survey, which pointed to problems with parental involvement, student absenteeism, tardiness and classroom misbehavior.

Husted says teacher turnover — the state will need to look for 1,700 new teachers next year — indicates that school climate needs to be improved. "Our surveys continue to show our teaches spend 23 to 25 percent of their time disciplining youngsters," she said.

This year's report, "Quality Counts 2005: No Small Change, Targeting Money Toward Student Performance," focused on how states are spending money to try to reach targets under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Spending

Hawai'i ranked 35th for per pupil spending — $7,326 per child compared to a national average of $7,734.

The report noted that Hawai'i is developing a weighted-student formula, which would adjust money for special education students, students in poverty, English language learners and other groups. In addition, the Board of Education has begun studying how much it would cost to provide public school students with a high-quality education.

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