KAILUA-KONA — Educators in Hawaii just became a little more powerful.
The state Board of Education unanimously approved recommendations Tuesday effectively removing standardized test scores as a requirement in the measurement of teacher performance, according to a press release from the state Department of Education.
The recommendations, which were subsequently approved by Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, will offer more flexibility to incorporate and weigh different components of teacher performance evaluation, although the option to use test scores in performance evaluation remains.
The recommendations originated from members of a joint committee between the Hawaii State Teachers Association and DOE, established by the most recent collective bargaining agreement in 2013. Vice Chairperson of the BOE Brian De Lima said that since then, the committee has conducted ongoing reviews and improvements to the evaluation system.
“There was a continuous evolution to make things better so teachers don’t spend all their time involved in the evaluation process, particularly when they’ve already been (rated) highly effective or effective,” De Lima said. “And the teachers being mentored who may need additional work, they’re getting the attention and the support so they stay interested in remaining in the profession — the most important profession.”
Formerly, teachers in Hawaii were beholden to curriculum and standards developed with little or none of their input by entities HSTA Secretary-Treasurer Amy Perruso described as “corporate philanthropists.” These entities, namely the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, have had sway in setting teacher performance standards, developed testing for those standards and profiting from the system, she said.
Teaching effectiveness, then, was rated on student understanding of curriculum teachers themselves didn’t develop but were forced by the administration to implement. Performance of teachers was also rated on aggregated test scores of every student participant — the majority of whom individual teachers never had in their own classrooms.
“The teacher evaluation system served as a control mechanism,” said Perruso, who also teaches social studies at Mililani High School on Oahu. “If you don’t follow the guidelines, you won’t be rated as ‘effective.’ That’s why what happened (Tuesday) was so critical. It gives teachers back a modicum of power. We’re no longer completely held under the thumb of principals because they can’t use test scores against us anymore.”
The move was a small but crucial step toward empowering teachers to reclaim some control inside the education system from the private sector — a paradigm that Perruso said has had a devastating impact on the teaching profession and public education.
“Taxpayers pay for public education, but an arrangement was set up where much of what used to be provided by the public education system was outsourced to consultants,” she explained. “Public money used to be used for public institutions, now it’s going to private companies. Teachers used to develop our own standards, now we pay for them. We used to do our own tests, now we pay for them.”
State Rep. Mark Nakashima, D-Kukuihaele, Laupahoehoe, North Hilo, who has fought to use property taxes to help fund public education, said he thought it was a mistake to use standardized testing as a barometer for teacher efficacy in the first place, calling it “just one arbitrary measure.”
Justin Brown, the career and technical education program coordinator at Kealakehe High School, expressed a similar view, saying gauging student performance appropriately can serve as a meaningful indicator of teacher quality, but it serves a more important function of informing professional development, collaboration, instruction and curriculum pacing for teachers.
“It’s unclear if the mandatory, universal, quantitative assessment developed at a rather high cost ‘for’ schools has ever measured or informed student performance, or if such data could effectively inform or (create incentive) for more authentic and rigorous student learning experiences,” said Brown, whose teaching philosophy holds little use for standardized testing. “The idea that students would test for the purpose of teacher — or school — evaluation fundamentally undermines the construct of a community of learners.”
But opinions about the issue vary, even within educational ranks.
Christopher Rodriguez, curriculum coordinator at Waipahu Elementary School on Oahu, wrote a piece for civilbeat.com in February. In that column, Rodriguez said criticisms such as those above don’t line up with his experience.
“We did not lose autonomy or the opportunity to meet the needs of our students,” Fernandez wrote. “Our core mission of serving students seemed secondary as we incorporated new systems and initiatives. I remember how high-stakes testing shifted how we planned and ran classrooms. Initially, we focused on test prep, made our student work match the format of the tests and reorganized the pace of instruction so we finished before the tests started in March. But then the shock of change wore off and we realized that tests were merely one aspect of education. No one forced me to do test prep all year.”
Changes to federal law arriving with President Barack Obama’s December signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which succeeded the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002, have broken some chains tethering educational funding and rating systems to test scores.
The possibility to reform the state’s entire education system — how it’s funded, where the money goes, what curriculum is taught and how it’s taught — is available under ESSA, if Hawaii chooses to make use of the opportunity.
The question is how much is DOE’s current brass willing to change?
Perruso isn’t convinced a commitment to change is pervasive throughout the system, but rather that some maneuvering might be taking place above an undercurrent of business connections and politics.
Matayoshi was left off a task force Gov. David Ige assembled in April to reexamine standards and testing in the state’s public schools. The Board of Education, which oversees the position of superintendent, will welcome three new members next school year. All will be appointed by Ige.
“I see this willingness to negotiate as the easiest thing they could do as a move to alleviate political pressure,” Perruso said.
The superintendent’s office could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
