HB2527.DOC

SECTION 1. A quality education for all our keiki is the foundation of our social and economic future.

Hawaii's steady gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the "Nation's Report Card," show that Hawaii's educational improvement efforts are moving us in the right direction. In 2011, Hawaii was the only state that demonstrated significant gains in all grade levels and subjects tested. However, we still have a long way to go and must accelerate improvement for our children to benefit from the economic, social and civic opportunities in our state and global community.

In 2010, the State's race to the top plan (the "plan") was one of 12 selected by the U.S. Department of Education, and was widely supported by government, education and community leaders and stakeholders. The plan establishes clear principles, policy actions and timetables for changes in policies, practices and outcomes in areas critical to transforming public education.

The legislature finds that the plan sets out actions that are ambitious and essential to the transformation of our education system.

According to established research, effective teaching is the school-based factor that contributes most to student achievement. Students who have effective teachers demonstrate higher performance, and multiple years with effective teachers has been demonstrated to close the gap in achievement for disadvantaged and academically underperforming students with their more advantaged peers.

The legislature believes that investing in our educators will have the most significant impact in educational outcomes for children and our state, and that effective educators are critical to our children having the best chance at reaching their potential and achieving their dreams.

Supporting educators' effectiveness requires a comprehensive approach including clear expectations for students, aligned systems of support from classrooms to the state offices, flexibility for innovation, and a performance-based management system for educators – including educational officers, principals and teachers – that provides a clear career path with meaningful performance measures, rigorous evaluation, quality feedback for improvement, targeted teacher support, and opportunities and rewards for effective educators.

In 2004, the legislature enacted a comprehensive education reform bill, Act 51, the "Reinventing Education Act of 2004." The legislature finds that the framework established in Act 51 should be updated and aligned with evolving research on educational improvement as well as the State's race to the top plans which are included in the department's long term strategic plan.

The purpose of this Act is to provide the directive, means, and flexibility to establish a performance management system that cultivates and supports highly effective educators and that implements our state's race to the top commitments by:

(1) Requiring the department to review and revise, as appropriate and based on the principles and policy framework described in the State's race to the top plan, its recruitment, evaluation, support, tenure, incentive, classification, and compensation policies and practices to develop, measure and hold educators accountable for facilitating student learning and growth;

(2) Requiring the department to provide data to the Hawaii teacher standards board for each state approved teacher education program about the performance of each program's completers employed by the department; and

(3) Requiring the department to report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the regular session of 2013, 2014 and 2015 on the performance management system status and effectiveness, actions taken by the board of education and department with respect to the performance management system, and legislative action required to enable the system, as well as any other action required to enable implementation of the State's race to the top plan.

SECTION 2. Section 302A-1004, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) The department shall implement a comprehensive system of educational accountability to motivate and support the improved performance of students and the education system. This accountability system shall:

(1) Include student accountability; school or collective accountability; individual professional accountability for teachers, principals, and other employees; and public accounting to parents, community members, businesses, higher education, media, and political leadership;

(2) Link authority and resources to responsibility;

(3) Define clear roles for all parties and lines of responsibility and mutual obligation and develop a collaborative process with stakeholders, including representatives of appropriate bargaining units, parents, administration, and students;

(4) Assess and track measures of academic achievement, safety and well-being, and civic responsibility of individual students at selected grade levels and report trend data on these measures over time annually;

(5) Invoke a full and balanced set of appropriate consequences for observed performance, including rewards and recognition for those schools or educators that meet or exceed their goals, assistance to those that fall short, and sanctions for those that, given adequate assistance and ample time, continue to fail to meet goals;

(6) Involve an annual statewide assessment program that provides a report card containing trend data on school, school complex, and system performance at selected benchmark grade levels with performance indicators in areas relating to student achievement, safety and well-being, and civic responsibility. These performance indicators shall include but not be limited to:

(A) Student performance relative to statewide content and performance standards[~~; and~~] including gaps in achievement between all students and student groups persistently achieving at lower levels;

(B) School attendance and dropout rates;

(D) Rates of students entering and persisting in postsecondary education and training;

(7) Require that teachers and administrators engage in the continuous professional growth and development that ensure their currency with respect to disciplinary content, leadership skill, knowledge, or pedagogical skill, as appropriate to their position. This requirement may be established by the department in terms of credit hours earned or their equivalent in professional development activity certified by the department as appropriate in focus and rigor;

(8) Establish an explicit link between professional evaluation results and individual accountability through professional development of the knowledge, skill, and professional behavior necessary to the position, by requiring that results of the professional evaluation be used by the department to prescribe professional development focus and content, as appropriate;

(9) Include an annual statewide fiscal accountability program, which includes a published report card that contains trend data on school, school complex, and systemwide plans and results, including:

(A) Amounts allocated;

(B) Amounts expended;

(D) Any significant changes to the budget, with an explanation for the change;

(10) Include an evaluation of the effectiveness of for individual educators including complex area superintendents, [~~and~~] principals, and teachers in supporting:

(A) Students' academic achievement, safety and well-being, and civic responsibility; [~~and~~]

(i) Students' academic achievement shall constitute 50 per cent of the evaluation rating of effectiveness;

(ii) Students' academic achievement shall be based on the educators' contribution to student academic learning and growth; and

(iii) The measurement of students' academic achievement must consist of multiple measures to include statewide assessment and other student learning objectives, as determined by the department, and cannot be based on a single standardized test score.

(B) The satisfaction of stakeholders affected by the work of the [~~complex area superintendents and principals~~] educators, which may be measured by broadbased surveys; and

(C) Other measures of professional practice, appropriate to the position. [~~Fiscal~~]Other measures include fiscal accountability[.]for administrators and classroom practice and student engagement for teachers.

(11) Establish an annual rating of performance that differentiates using at least four performance levels, as determined by the department. The annual rating of performance shall be based on the evaluation of the effectiveness of individual educators and shall commence no later than July 1, 2013."

SECTION 3. The department shall submit findings including status of the performance management system, actions taken by the board of education and department with respect to the performance management system, and proposed legislation, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2012, 2013, and 2014.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________
	BY REQUEST

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2527
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012
STATE OF HAWAII