Frequency of Evaluations: Hawaii

Identifying Effective Teachers Policy

Look at National Findings

Goal

The state should require annual evaluations of all teachers.

Meets goal

Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2013). Frequency of Evaluations: Hawaii results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/HI-Frequency-of-Evaluations-22

Analysis of Hawaii's policies

Hawaii now requires that all teachers receive an annual overall performance rating on a teacher evaluation.
All classroom teachers must be formally observed at least twice—one per semester—each school year. All observations are followed by a postobservation conference.

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POLICY UPDATE

The state has made the following changes to its evaluation system:

Differentiate number of observations based on need: o for highly effective teachers, 1 or more for effective teachers (may be scheduled at any time during year), 2 or more for marginal/unsatisfactory/beginning teachers (one must be in first semester).

Teachers who received highly effective rating in SY2013-14 may carry over rating.

Student survey administered 1x/year, vs. 2x/year, and eliminated altogether for K-2.

For most teachers, reduce number of SLOs from two to one annually.

Student surveys is no longer its own component, but rather is embedded as a subcomponent under Core Professionalism.
THIS POLICY CHANGE WILL NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE STATE'S SCORE.

Recommendations for Hawaii

State response to our analysis

Hawaii was helpful in providing NCTQ with the facts necessary for this analysis.

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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers

Expanding the Pool of Teachers

Identifying Effective Teachers

Retaining Effective Teachers

Exiting Ineffective Teachers

Pensions

Research rationale

Annual evaluations are standard practice in most professional jobs.

Although there has been much progress on this front recently, about half of the states still do not mandate annual evaluations of teachers who have reached permanent or tenured status. The lack of regular evaluations is unique to the teaching profession and does little to advance the notion that teachers are professionals.

Further, teacher evaluations are too often treated as mere formalities rather than as important tools for rewarding good teachers, helping average teachers improve and holding weak teachers accountable for poor performance. State policy should reflect the importance of evaluations so that teachers and principals alike take their consequences seriously.

Evaluations are especially important for new teachers.

Individuals new to a profession frequently have reduced responsibilities coupled with increased oversight. As competencies are demonstrated, new responsibilities are added and supervision decreases. Such is seldom the case for new teachers, who generally have the same classroom responsibilities as veteran teachers, including responsibility for the academic progress of their students, but may receive limited feedback on their performance. In the absence of good metrics for determining who will be an effective teacher before he or she begins to teach, it is critical that schools and districts closely monitor the performance of new teachers.

The state should specifically require that districts observe new teachers early in the school year. This policy would help ensure that new teachers get the support they need early and that supervisors know from the beginning of the school year which new teachers (and which students) may be at risk. Subsequent observations provide important data about the teacher's ability to improve. Data from evaluations from the teacher's early years of teaching can then be used as part of the performance-based evidence to make a decision about tenure.

Frequency of Evaluations: Supporting Research

For the frequency of evaluations in government and private industry, see survey results from Hudson Employment Index's report: "Pay and Performance in America: 2005 Compensation and Benefits Report" Hudson Group (2005).

For research emphasizing the importance of evaluation and observations for new teachers in predicting future success and providing support for teachers see, D. Staiger and J. Rockoff, "Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Volume 24, No. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 97-118.

State Teacher Policy