Everyone’s on a learning curve at the state Department of Education — and not just the kids.
After years of hewing fairly closely to federal guidelines and protocols — observing mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act, hitting marks in competition for a “Race to the Top” grant — the DOE is adjusting to a greater measure of independence given to school districts across the country.
One of the first signs of its exercise of that freedom is a revised strategic plan, a document meant to guide education policy and practice for the next three academic years.
The vehicle for change was the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law last year, requiring strategic plans developed by each state. The DOE wants to submit its plan to meet an early federal deadline of April 3, so that the goals and strategies are familiar to educators by the time the 2017-18 academic year begins.
The document reflects a broader perspective on what constitutes success in educating students for their future, whether that takes them to college first or to the start of their working life. The plan is structured to be more “student-centered,” said Tammi Oyadomari-Chun, the department’s assistant superintendent for strategy, innovation and performance.
That means there is a clearer nexus between what it pursues and the hoped-for result: a well-rounded education for the child, she added, one that incorporates the arts and other subjects beyond reading and math.
“It calls out more clearly what we always thought was good practice but wasn’t as emphasized during the No Child Left Behind years,” Oyadomari-Chun said, in a meeting last week with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board.
And that is a welcome change from the punitive, hard-wired approach that held schools accountable to benchmarks that were administered in a top-down style.
The plan is being presented on Tuesday to the state Board of Education, by what is essentially a DOE administration in transition.
Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, whose contract has not been renewed beyond June 2017, oversaw this redesign, a change in direction from the department’s orientation when she took the job more than six years ago.
She then had implemented the stricter NCLB rules that persisted into the Obama years and pursued the “Race” grant that brought Hawaii schools $75 million in additional transformation funding.
Matayoshi previously received high marks from the school board, which now, under the direction of Gov. David Ige, is embarking on a search for her replacement.
The governor and his team, for their part, is developing a “blueprint” that maps out educational policy with a more distant horizon.
So far there’s been no indication that these separate road maps are in conflict, no persuasive case made as to why changing the person at the helm will accomplish the governor’s objectives for more campus control of education.
That said, Ige’s aim of renovating Hawaii’s statewide school
district into something less bureaucratic, a system that capitalizes on the teaching innovations discovered at the ground level, is a worthy objective.
And this proposed strategic plan seems to have the right targets in its sights.
Early criticism of the plan seems based on skepticism that the DOE, which largely has adhered to principles of centralized administration, will yield its control. Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, voiced those doubts, although he said the teachers union supports the values expressed in the document.
Indeed, the proof will be in the deliverables: a system that’s more responsive to ideas from the faculty, adaptations that fit more closely to the needs of students in specific communities.
We hope the teachers, who have lobbied long and hard for more flexibility in education, will make the most of the opportunity. The DOE must make good on its commitment to openness, but the faculty itself must step up now in response to the plan’s invitation, sharing expertise and methods that have proven successful.
Specifically, the plan references under its “Successful Systems of Support” goal, innovation objectives to “identify and scale local public education ‘Bright Spots.’” To “scale” or replicate good ideas, the DOE pledges to enable statewide professional networks for sharing among teachers.
Of course, testing requirements remain in place, as they should. A core curriculum, standards and tests provide a yardstick to ensure that students are gaining the skills they need to excel in an ever more competitive world.
But there are other measures of school progress spelled out in the plan: reduction of absenteeism, improving high school graduation rates, teacher retention and other factors are recognized as the positive attributes they are.
The plan lays out the steps toward a stronger school system. Hawaii can make headway toward that goal, if teachers as well as administrators are empowered as promised.
