HONOLULU — Hawaii’s Department of Education may delay using standardized test scores to make high-stakes personnel decisions after concerns were raised about fairness.
Officials say it could be two more years before public teachers see their pay tied to student achievement, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Monday.
Evaluations were rolled out last year that partly based teachers’ annual ratings on student learning and growth based on standardized test scores. The spring test scores are supposed to be used to help determine whether teachers are eligible for pay raises, granted tenure or fired.
“This request is meant to allow for more support for our educators,” Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said in a statement. “We need more time to transition to the new student assessments.”
Students will be taking a new test in March that is aligned to rigorous Common Core standards. The new exam is considered harder than the Hawaii State Assessment it replaces, so some teachers think test scores will drop dramatically.
Nearly 40 states have adopted policies that tie teacher evaluations in part to students’ performance on standardized tests. But teachers have been arguing that it’s unfair to tie performance to scores on untested exams.
Other critics say the federal government is forcing the Common Core standards on states and promoting an over-reliance on testing.
“For us this is a huge win in that it’s a recognition that tying test scores to teacher evaluations is a tricky business to begin with, and this particular test is untested,” said Kapolei High School English teacher Joan Lewis, who serves as vice president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
Responding to the growing concerns, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in August announced that states would be able to delay tying teacher evaluations to test scores.
Lewis, with the HSTA, said teachers are still committed to helping craft an evaluation system that better measures a teacher’s effectiveness.
“Any test that you give a student is supposed to be snapshot that gives you an indication of where they are on their academic journey. And like any snapshot, sometimes it’s out of focus, sometimes someone blinks,” she said. “So then to say that a teacher’s employment and compensation should be tied to where the students are at any point in time, that’s a difficult proposition.”
Under teachers’ 2013-17 labor contract, the state and teachers union agreed to annual performance-based evaluations. Lewis said the union isn’t backing down from that commitment.
“I get that people like to use test scores — it’s simple and easy — but if we’re talking about really measuring student learning, we have to have a more comprehensive way of looking at it. It’s not as simple as a number,” she said. “If all we care about is test scores, we’re never going to get the kind of education system everyone is craving.”