The Hawaii Business Roundtable has donated 189 iPads to the Department of Education for its teacher evaluation pilot program.
Three iPads will go to each of the 63 schools that will join the pilot in the upcoming school year. The pilot began this school year at 18 schools, which are using iPads for the project.
The value of the iPads is about $115,000.
About 40 businesses chipped in to cover the costs, said Allan Uyeda, chairman of the public policy organization made up of senior executives of Hawaii companies.
Uyeda said schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi approached the organization, for which she previously served as executive director, to ask for help acquiring the iPads.
"Kathy came to the roundtable and said, ‘Look, this is important,’" Uyeda said. "Virtually everyone on the roundtable wanted to help."
The iPads are used by school administrators as they observe teachers in the classroom.
The department’s teacher evaluation pilot includes a revamped observation process, a student survey and measures of student academic growth.
The new evaluation system, which will be expanded to all teachers in the 2013-14 school year, is among the education reforms Hawaii pledged to make to receive a $75 million federal Race to the Top grant.
The DOE said the iPads are loaded with an observation template, which administrators use to identify areas of weakness and strength in a teacher’s instructional practice. The findings of the observation are emailed to the teacher.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a news release, "It is encouraging to see Hawaii’s business leaders investing in the education of their companies’ future managers and team members."
