When federal authorities visit in January for an extensive review to determine whether Hawaii can deliver on its Race to the Top education pledges, the state will acknowledge stumbling in key initiatives but argue the school system has seen great progress.

During the review, which the Obama administration announced after placing Hawaii’s $75 million Race grant on "high-risk" status last week — and warning that the money could be lost if gains are not made — the state will also try to convince officials that newfound momentum can make up for a slow start that has resulted in delays of nearly every aspect of its reform plans.

But it’s not yet clear whether the state will be able to show movement in one of the biggest areas of concern for federal officials: a continuing labor dispute with the teachers union that has stalled several major projects, including efforts to reach a collective bargaining agreement on improved teacher evaluations.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association said last week that "informal discussions" continue with the state, but stressed that negotiations have not resumed since the summer, when the state unilaterally implemented a "last, best and final" contract offer with wage reductions for public school teachers.

"I think if the state is ready to look at this with urgency, we are very open in the discussions," said Wil Okabe, HSTA president. "It would be more advantageous to the state if we can resolve this conflict and think about the priorities."

The U.S. Department of Education review, set for late next month, could make or break Hawaii’s grant, whose "high-risk" status reflects federal worries about whether the state is capable of meeting its ambitious Race to the Top promises.

Stephen Schatz, head of the state Department of Education’s Office of Strategic Reform, said Hawaii officials are looking forward to the federal review as a chance to show "our projects are moving forward."

Schatz added that though a number of Race to the Top targets have been missed this year, the state can also point to several major successes, including the roll-out of tougher nationally standardized learning benchmarks and adoption in September of a "college- and career-ready" diploma.

"The commitments that all parties made to get this work done have been harder than anticipated," Schatz said. "But we will have evidence" of progress for the federal officials.

There has been considerable work in the state’s two "Zones of School Innovation" to offer extra support, training and feedback to teachers, said Yvonne Lau, administrator for the department’s performance management section.

In 18 schools in the zones, located in Leeward Oahu and the Kau-Pahoa area of Hawaii island, principals are beginning to conduct observations of teachers using new research-based rubrics. And this spring, teachers will get data on the effects they had on student learning over the course of a school year.

"When the feds come, there will be a lot to show them," Lau said. "We’ve been working really hard."

To receive the four-year grant, one of 10 competitively awarded in August 2010, Hawaii pledged to undergo what amounted to a redesign of the state’s public school system. Efforts are aimed at boosting student achievement, improving teacher effectiveness and turning around the lowest-performing schools.

Hawaii is the only Race recipient to be put on "high-risk" status, a reprimand that education observers have called a bold and unusual move by the federal education agency — and evidence that federal authorities are serious about seeing results from Race to the Top, a signature education initiative of the Obama administration.

Federal officials have called Hawaii’s performance on the grant so far "unsatisfactory," and said that in scrutinizing Hawaii’s progress, the federal agency is living up to its pledge to hold states to their promises. "Hawaii is going to end up in a tough spot" if progress isn’t made, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned Thursday. "We are going to look for some pretty significant improvements pretty early in the new year."

Duncan said he is "less concerned about time frames than I am about momentum and movement. We haven’t seen anywhere near the type of progress we need from Hawaii."

Another federal education official noted, during a conference call with reporters, that Hawaii has not met the "vast majority" of its commitments in the first year of the grant.

No other recipients are in danger of being put in "high-risk" status, the education agency said.

The federal government’s well-publicized concerns give a black eye to a state whose public schools have historically lagged behind national norms, and come amid doubt in the national education community that Hawaii will be able to make the kinds of reforms it promised to achieve by 2014, when the grant ends.

"Hawaii has actually made some strides, but they haven’t done enough and they haven’t done it quickly enough," said Elena Silva, senior policy analyst with Education Sector, a Washington, D.C.-based research group. Race to the Top time lines are "really short," and the goals are "very ambitious," she said, noting that several states, not just Hawaii, have missed key targets.

The difference, Silva said, is that Hawaii’s problems appear to be larger — and more public. The dispute with teachers, she said, has "made headlines."

It stems from the state’s decision to impose a contract for teachers after declaring an impasse in negotiations.

The state has said the contract was needed to realize labor savings and avert teacher layoffs, while the union argues the action violated its members’ rights. The two sides have been arguing their cases before the Hawaii Labor Relations Board for months, with no conclusion in sight.

As a result, the state has not been able to reach supplemental union agreements on a host of key grant initiatives, including improved teacher evaluations in certain regions, tenure rules and a performance-based compensation system.

HSTA’s Okabe said discussions are taking place on how to reach agreements on those issues. But he noted that the situation is "problematic" because there is no "master agreement," only the imposed contract.

After the federal government announced that Hawaii’s grant was in jeopardy, Gov. Neil Abercrombie said he would ask the labor board to "expedite its process to bring its discussions to a timely conclusion."

The labor problems are not the only ones that have plagued the state’s efforts, though.

In filing amendments of its plan with the federal Education Department, the state noted that it has struggled to fill positions needed to carry out projects and has had difficulty finalizing contracts quickly.

The federal agency said a number of Race projects have been delayed for at least a year, including the introduction of end-of-course tests, e-courses to offer students in rural areas access to highly qualified teachers, and the completion of administrative rules to enable school reconstitution, which gives the superintendent authority to turn around failing schools with extraordinary measures, such as replacing all teachers.

The state has received federal approval for at least 32 amendments to its plan, most of which reflect delays.

As of Dec. 16 the state had spent about $4 million of its grant. It had planned to spend about $17 million in the first year.

State Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said the state does have a "long way to go" in meeting its pledges, but added that Hawaii has also made a number of gains.

The HSTA dispute "is presenting quite a challenge, but I don’t think it’s insurmountable," she said.

SOME HITS, SOME MISSES

Hawaii has struggled this year to meet key pledges under a $75 million federal Race to the Top grant. Here’s a look at what the state has and hasn’t been able to accomplish this year: Big Hits

>> Tougher graduation requirements: Under the changes, approved by the Board of Education in September, every public high school student will have to pass geometry, biology and two other lab sciences. The new diploma requirements take effect with the class of 2016, today’s eighth-graders.

>> Common-core standards: This school year, Hawaii began rolling out common-core learning standards for students, which have been adopted by 43 other states and the District of Columbia. Core standards are more rigorous and are designed to better prepare students for college or the work force.

>> Teacher-mentoring program: All new teachers must now undergo at least two years of comprehensive mentoring under a plan adopted this year aimed at making teachers more effective. Big Misses

>> Improved teacher evaluations: The state had planned to roll out a new performance-based evaluation system for teachers in Leeward Oahu and on Hawaii island and expand it to 40 more schools in 2012-13. An unresolved labor dispute with the teachers union means the current evaluation system remains in place.

>> Performance-based pay: This project, also stalled because of the labor dispute, was to provide incentives to “highly qualified teachers” and to teachers in certain subject areas.

>> Equitable distribution of highly qualified personnel: The equitable distribution of effective principals and teachers is a pillar of the state’s plan to close achievement gaps among disadvantaged children and other groups. The effort requires union agreements and big changes in the recruitment and placement systems in the state Department of Education.

Source: Hawaii Department of Education