SB2653

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii has experienced a severe teacher shortage and rampant turnover in its public schools for the past decade. Each year, the State hires approximately one thousand seven hundred new teachers to fill vacant positions statewide. However, once hired, approximately fifty per cent of these newly hired teachers leave the system within five years. The Hawaii educational policy center reports that a primary concern of those leaving is dissatisfaction with an overall lack of professional support for new teachers. Additionally, the Hawaii State Teachers Association reports that, based on a survey of its members, approximately one-third of teachers will leave the profession after only three years with forty-six per cent leaving within five years.

The legislature further finds that the loss of teachers costs the department of education approximately $4,000,000 per year. This estimation, however, may be a conservative estimate with more fully comprehensive estimates totaling closer to $29,000,000 per year.

The legislature supports initiatives and programs that combat the high teacher attrition rates within the department of education and endeavor to develop and retain high-quality teachers. The legislature finds that teacher induction programs can cut teacher attrition in half and improve teacher effectiveness. Accordingly, research indicates that among beginning teachers nationally, forty-one per cent who do not receive induction support change schools or leave the profession altogether after their first year, compared to only eighteen per cent of teachers who participate in high-quality induction programs. Additionally, for every $1 invested in a comprehensive teacher induction program, a return of $1.66 is realized after five years.

The purpose of this Act is to establish and fund a Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program to assist in the development and retention of highly-qualified teachers in the State.

SECTION 2. (a) There is established a Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program within the department of education to help improve the retention of new teachers through rigorous, in-depth assistance and support from highly-trained mentors. The department of education shall provide staff as needed for the implementation of the project.

(b) The goals of the Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program shall be to:

(1) Provide an effective transition into the teaching career for six hundred first-year and second-year teachers;

(2) Improve the educational performance of pupils through improved training, information, and assistance for six hundred new teachers;

(3) Ensure professional success and retention of six hundred new teachers;

(4) Ensure that fifty mentors provide intensive individualized support and assistance to each of the six hundred participating beginning teachers;

(5) Ensure that an individual induction plan is in place for each of the six hundred beginning teachers and is based on an ongoing assessment of the development of the beginning teachers;

(6) Ensure continuous program improvement through ongoing research, development, and evaluation; and

(7) Increase teacher retention to ninety per cent.

(c) The Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program shall use mentors, selected on the basis of understanding of standards, curriculum, assessment, and literacy/mathematics education. There shall be at least sixty mentors to support six hundred beginning teachers. Each mentor shall attend at least twelve full days of mentor training at a mentor academy, which shall include instruction on the assessment tools, coaching, observation strategies, and analysis of student work. The mentors shall be fully released from their classroom responsibilities during participation in the program. Mentors shall tailor support to the needs of each individual teacher, which may include:

(1) Classroom management;

(2) At least three formal classroom observations with feedback cycles;

(3) Informal observations;

(4) Collection of student data;

(5) Lesson design;

(6) Demonstration lessons;

(7) Resource identification; and

(8) Interaction with colleagues, parents, and administrators.

Each mentor shall conduct weekly one-on-one meetings with each teacher and attend weekly half-day mentor forums providing continuing professional development for mentors.

(d) The department of education shall ensure that the Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program shall also include the following:

(1) A five-day summer institute for beginning teachers, which includes planning for the upcoming school year, familiarization with assessment tools, and a one-day visit to a school to observe exemplary teachers in the first days of school;

(2) Two days of release time for teachers to observe exemplary veteran teachers and debrief; and

(3) At least three half-day trainings for school administrators over the course of the school year to learn how to support the program.

(e) The department of education shall provide for program assessment that shall consist of the following:

(1) The New Teacher Center Formative Assessment System to assist teachers and mentors in collecting data that includes classroom profiles, assessment logs, individual learning plans, self-assessment summaries, and analysis of student work;

(2) The Hawaii Continuum of Teacher Development to allow teachers to self-assess along four characteristics, that is, emerging, applying, integrating, and innovating, and to set goals at the beginning of the year to be evaluated at the year's end;

(3) Data collection, including:

(A) Weekly teacher performance measures;

(B) Teacher certification and retention tracking;

(D) Student achievement, including benchmark assessments in grades three to eight; and

(E) Teacher, mentor, and site administrator surveys; and

(4) A final evaluation and written report to assess the effectiveness of the program based on the teacher, mentor, and site administrator surveys, professional development attendance rates, student achievement benchmarks, and teacher retention tracking.

(f) The department of education shall submit interim reports on the Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program, including its status, outcomes, findings, and recommendations to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening each regular session from 2009 to 2011, and a final report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2012.

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 2008-2009 for the Hawaii beginning teacher induction pilot program established pursuant to this Act.

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

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008; provided that this Act shall be repealed on June 30, 2012.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2653
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII