TASK FORCE PROPOSAL
Revamp schools
that are failing
Failure to meet standards would
By Rob Perez
bring sweeping changes, a new staff
Star-BulletinPublic schools that persistently fail to meet certain minimum standards should be declared academically bankrupt, triggering sweeping staff changes that essentially would create new schools, a panel evaluating Hawaii's education system says. The state also should set aside bonus money to reward teachers -- at the elementary, secondary and university levels -- who are able to exceed certain performance standards.
Those were among the proposals that the working group for the Economic Revitalization Task Force made yesterday, all with the aim of producing students better prepared for an increasingly competitive job market.
Many proposals are bound to run into resistance.
But members of the working group said sweeping structural changes are needed to improve the state's education system and make Hawaii more competitive in a global economy.
"We can't continue tinkering around the edges of change," said member Annette Chun-Ming, who retired as Waialae Elementary School principal three years ago.
Among the proposals that likely will generate the most controversy are those making public schools and teachers more accountable.
Any school that fails to meet predetermined standards would be given a specified time, possibly a year, to improve, according to the working group's proposal. It didn't recommend what the standards should be, but mentioned test scores and attendance records as possible elements.
If the school can't meet the measures after the set period, an education SWAT team would be dispatched to help. If the institution still fails to meet the standards, it would be declared bankrupt and major changes would be made to the staffing.
"The system needs to be able to cleanse itself," said Kapaa Elementary School principal Clifton Bailey, who also was part of the working group. "If you are short-changing your students on a continual basis, you don't deserve to do the job."
Karen Knudsen, state Board of Education chairwoman and a member of the working group, said other states have adopted the school-accountability approach, and she would like to see how effective it has been before taking a position.
"We owe it to our students, though, to make sure if the schools aren't working we need to take drastic action," Knudsen said.
For the teacher incentives, the group proposed setting aside 2 percent of the Department of Education and University of Hawaii budgets for bonuses payable to those who exceed performance standards. It likewise did not recommend what those standards should be.
Elementary and secondary teachers currently are paid according to union-management negotiated pay scales, with no performance-based incentives.
Chun-Ming said the incentive approach would be controversial because it hasn't been done before. But those are the kinds of changes that Hawaii must consider in light of the serious problems facing the economy and school system, she said.
"Just showing up for work is not enough," she said.
Knudsen said the issue of performance-based incentives has been raised in past contract talks but no agreement has been reached.
A representative from the Hawaii State Teachers Association could not be reached for comment last night.
But HSTA President June Motokawa was on the working group and didn't raise any objections when both proposals were discussed at the end of yesterday's meeting.
Some teachers, however, have expressed concerns about performance pay, noting that schools, classrooms and students can be so different that set standards might be unfair.
Other recommendations made by the group yesterday included:
The recommendations now go to the task force, which will decide on an economic game plan to recommend to next year's Legislature.Making principal and vice principal jobs non-union.
