Appropriates funds to address teacher shortage.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a national organization with twenty-two partner states, including Hawaii, is focused on improving student learning by ensuring that there is a caring, competent, and qualified teacher in every classroom.

In 2001 the Hawaii Policy Group of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, composed of a representative group of educational stakeholders, collaborated on research-based recommendations to improve teaching in Hawaii. Currently, the Policy Group is preparing a status report of those recommendations to report on the progress made to date. The recommendations encompass five goal areas:

Clearly, aside from home and societal factors, teacher quality is, without question, the most influential factor in student achievement. Standards-based reform has a greater chance of success when teacher quality is addressed and given the highest priority. The State must equip teachers with the resources and skills necessary to ensure that all students attain their full potential.

This Act arises out of the work of the Hawaii Policy Group of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

The purpose of this Act is to build on the progress of Act 313, Session Laws of Hawaii 2001, and appropriate funds to provide for new initiatives that will strengthen teacher preparation, teacher licensing, and strategically address teacher recruitment and retention through a comprehensive approach offered by the five goal areas above. The legislature is determined to alleviate the teacher shortage facing the department of education while continuing to ensure that teacher quality is upheld.

For the purposes of this Act, "professional development schools" means those public schools, consortia of schools, or departments within schools that have entered into formal agreements with state-approved teacher education programs to address:

SECTION 2. (a) The department of education shall allocate funds to professional development schools by means of competitive grants for up to five years subject to the availability of resources. A grant application shall include a description of how the professional development school will meet the professional development school standards of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the department's six images of success:

(b) Five per cent of the funds appropriated for the establishment and continued development of professional development schools shall be set aside for program administration, including an annual professional development school conference.

(c) Grants may be awarded for up to five years and may be renewable. Professional development schools shall present annual reports to the department and shall present findings at the annual professional development schools conference.

(d) The department of education shall ensure that by January 1, 2010 there shall be professional development school partnerships established in each school district with adequate funding.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $300,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, for the establishment and continued development of professional development schools in Hawaii public schools.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. To further strengthen teacher preparation and to build the University of Hawaii school of education’s capacity to meet the demand for more teachers to teach in Hawaii’s public schools, the University of Hawaii shall increase the full time equivalent teacher education faculty positions by five additional full time equivalent positions each year until fiscal year 2015 to allow the number of participants who complete the program to increase by one hundred per cent over the year 2004 total.

SECTION 5. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $360,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to increase the capacity of teacher students at the University of Hawaii by hiring five full time equivalent (10.00 FTE) teacher education faculty positions by June 30, 2006, and an additional five positions by June 30, 2007.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 6. To strengthen teacher preparation and reduce the financial hardships faced by potential school of education student teachers, the University of Hawaii shall include in its budget requests the amount of $250,000 per fiscal year for the Hawaii educator loan program. The University of Hawaii shall continue to request the amount until such time as the department of education determines that the program is no longer needed as an incentive to recruit student teachers.

SECTION 7. In order to ensure that the Hawaii teacher standards board is able to recruit and maintain a stable staff to process licenses in a timely manner, the legislature authorizes the conversion of its nine temporary positions to nine permanent full-time equivalent positions.

SECTION 8. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $347,228, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, for the continued funding of positions that fulfill functions assigned to the board.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the Hawaii teacher standards board for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 9. (a) The Hawaii teacher standards board shall conduct a comparability study of teacher tests used in other key states to determine which tests are comparable to those used in Hawaii and the equivalent passing scores.

(b) The Hawaii teacher standards board shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the legislature not later than twenty days before the convening of the regular session of 2006.

SECTION 10. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $150,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, for a comparability study of teacher tests used in other key states.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the Hawaii teacher standards board for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 11. The department shall, in partnership with the Hawaii state teachers association and representatives of the business community, prepare a package of incentives that responds to data gathered to identify the needs expressed recently by teachers in various surveys and studies. The incentives shall include financial commitments from the business community wherever possible.

SECTION 12. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $3,500,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to strengthen the financial incentives currently available to the department of education to recruit teachers.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 13. The department of education shall establish and maintain a statewide teacher induction program that is available to every newly hired teacher. The program shall ensure that the new teacher to mentor ratio is no greater than fifteen to one and that all mentors are specially skilled and trained to work effectively with newly hired teachers as determined by the department. The department shall work with the Hawaii teacher standards board and other Hawaii teacher education institutions to use performance portfolio assessments during the induction period.

SECTION 14. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $8,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to establish and maintain a statewide teacher induction program that is available to every newly hired teacher.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 15. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $250,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, to assist the department of education to establish and maintain a statewide teacher induction program for every newly hired teacher.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the Hawaii teacher standards board for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 16. To address the teacher retention issue and its impact on the teacher shortage, the legislature also supports the development of an action plan that seeks to improve teacher compensation over the next ten years.

SECTION 17. The department of education shall prepare an action plan with the assistance of the Hawaii state teachers association. The action plan shall include recommendations on the following:

SECTION 18. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, and the sum of $1, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to develop an action plan for teacher retention.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 19. Encouraging and rewarding teaching knowledge and skill is key to acknowledging that teachers are valued and supported. For this reason, the legislature supports the maintenance of a professional development program that adheres to the staff development standards of the National Staff Development Council. The legislature further supports the funding of a professional development program that is based on a $1,000 compensation per teacher every two years.

SECTION 20. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, for a professional development program that adheres to the staff development standards of the National Staff Development Council.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 21. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.