THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2789
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012		S.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 2

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

PART I

     SECTION 1.  Research studies consistently demonstrate that investing in the effectiveness of our teachers is the most productive means to increase student achievement and ensure that students are prepared to either continue their education beyond high school or engage in careers of their choice.  The State's greatest investment in public education is the quality of personnel in the department of education.  Maximizing the impact of this human capital investment is the greatest point of leverage Hawaii has to increase student learning and growth to improve public education outcomes for our children and the State.  The legislature finds that the department of education and board of education must accelerate their efforts to increase the effectiveness of the State's teachers and educational officers.

     In 2010, the United States Department of Education awarded the State a $74,934,761 race to the top grant.  The State's race to the top plan and the department of education's strategic plan include targeted initiatives to develop great teachers and great leaders to the benefit of Hawaii's students.  The legislature endorses the State's race to the top framework to accomplish these improvements in educator effectiveness, described in the State's race to the top plan, which outlines clear principles and policy actions and sets a timetable to implement a new performance management evaluation system and related human resource management support.

     Aligned with the State's race to the top commitments, the department of education has developed and begun a two-year pilot effort to establish a performance management system that will cultivate highly effective teachers and principals through recruitment, evaluation, support, tenure, and compensation.  Based on an evaluation of the pilot project, including feedback from pilot participants, the great teachers great leaders task force, and technical experts, the department of education will implement a new evaluation system for teachers statewide beginning July 1, 2013.

     The performance management system will keep teaching and student learning at the heart of teacher and educational officer evaluations and link educator effectiveness to the facilitation of student learning and growth.  Hawaii's educators deserve a high quality evaluation system that provides the tools they need to continuously improve their teaching and leadership to advance student learning.  To accomplish this, the evaluations must be fair, transparent, timely, rigorous, and valid.

     The purpose of this part, therefore, is to require the board of education to establish a permanent performance management system including an evaluation component that is based upon the department of education's pilot project and that supports the development of highly effective educators.

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

     "(a)  The [department] board 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, teachers, and educational officers 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;

(C) High school completion and graduation rates, and number of graduates that met benchmarks for college and career readiness; and

(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] board 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;

         (C)  Amounts carried over; and

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

    (10)  [Include an evaluation of the effectiveness of complex area superintendents and principals in supporting:

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

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

(C) Fiscal accountability.]

Include a consistent performance management program that shall include an evaluation of educational officers and teachers to provide information necessary to improve professional practice and leadership on a consistent and continuing basis in order to successfully facilitate student learning and growth.  The evaluation shall:

(A) Be performed at least once in each school year;

(B) Result in an annual rating of each employee's performance; and

(C) Be based on professional practice and contribution to student learning and growth; provided that student learning and growth shall be:

(i) Determined through the use of multiple measures; provided that it shall not be based on a single standardized test score; and

(ii) Included as a significant factor toward the annual rating.

The board shall define evaluation criteria, assign responsibilities for the application of the criteria, including training for those responsible for conducting evaluations, and identify uses for evaluation results.  The board shall determine evaluation categories, ratings, and labels.  The board may establish evaluation rating categories that are equivalent to those provided in this chapter, including "exemplary" and "satisfactory"."

     SECTION 3.  Section 302A-638, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is repealed.

     ["[§302A-638]  Evaluation of teachers and educational officers.  The department shall establish an evaluation program for all teachers and educational officers.  The evaluation shall be performed at least once in each school year.  The program shall define the criteria for evaluation and assign responsibilities for the application of the criteria.  The evaluation of a teacher or educational officer shall be on the basis of efficiency, ability, and such other criteria as the department shall determine."]

     SECTION 4.  The evaluation of principals required under this part shall be implemented no later than December 31, 2012.  The evaluation of teachers and educational officers other than principals required under this part shall be implemented no later than July 1, 2013.

     SECTION 5.  The department of education shall submit to the legislature its findings, including the status of the performance management system required by this part, actions taken by the board of education and department with respect to the performance management system, and proposed legislation, if any, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2013 and 2014.

PART II

     SECTION 6.  The legislature finds that Hawaii is one state among many addressing tenure in response to federal education reform guidelines and articles in The New York Times, Time magazine, USA Today, and newspapers across the country reveal the intensity of the tenure debate.  As of August 2011, eighteen state legislatures have modified various elements of their tenure or continuing contract policies, with a majority of states requiring a probationary period of three to five years.  Many states have also integrated performance evaluations in their tenure statutes, tying teacher impact on student outcomes to the attainment of tenure.

     The legislature finds that while it is imperative to maintain the job security that teacher tenure represents, it is equally imperative to modify tenure requirements in order to implement any meaningful education reform in the State.  Specifically, the legislature finds that the current two-year probationary period required of teachers prior to attaining tenured status is too short a window in which to adequately prepare teachers and assess whether an individual teacher is effective.  Accordingly, the purpose of this part is to require that all teachers entering the service of the department of education for the first time serve a minimum probationary period of three years prior to obtaining tenure.

     SECTION 7.  Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§302A-    Probationary period of employment. All teachers entering the service of the department for the first time shall serve as probationary employees of the department for a minimum period of three consecutive years; provided that:

(1) The consecutive employment may be interrupted by maternity leave, sick leave, or any other leave approved by the department not exceeding a period of three years; by military leave not exceeding a period of five years; or by termination or nonrenewal of the probationary employment contract because of a decrease in the number of pupils or for causes over which the department has no control, for a period between employment not to exceed five years, without loss of credit for the period of probationary employment; and

(2) At or prior to the end of the three-year period of probation, the department may extend the probationary period of a teacher for additional periods not to exceed a total probationary period of five years."

PART III

     SECTION 8.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 9.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2012.

Report Title:

Public Schools; Education

Description:

Provides the Board of Education the directive, means, and flexibility to establish a performance management system that includes an evaluation of teachers and educational officers.  Requires teachers first entering Department of Education employment to serve a probationary period of three years prior to attaining tenure.  Effective July 1, 2012.  (SB2789 HD2)

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.