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POSTED: Tuesday, November 25, 2008
                       

This story has been corrected. See below.

 

There are more qualified teachers in Hawaii's public schools than a year ago, but the state needs to do a better job placing those instructors in high-poverty campuses where students often struggle most, figures released yesterday show.

The number of isle teachers federally qualified in all their subjects rose to about 10,839 from 8,997 the same time last year, a 20.4 percent jump, according to the state Department of Education.

The improvement comes near the end of a 15-month, $250,000 contract between the Education Department and a private consultant reviewing teachers' credentials and providing training.

Officials had flagged as many as 6,200 as not being federally qualified, out of some 13,000, at the start of the previous academic year. Since then, Oregon-based School Synergy has met individually with school principals and teachers to help them document their qualifications or devise a plan to bring them up to speed.

A report released by the children's advocacy group Education Trust said that nationally, poor children and minority students are about twice as likely to have math teachers who don't know their subject.

Math is important because it is considered a “;gateway”; course, one that leads to greater success in college and the workplace. Kids who finish Algebra II in high school are more likely to get bachelor's degrees. And people with bachelor's degrees earn substantially more than those with high school diplomas.

The teaching problem is most acute in the middle grades, 5-8, the report said. That's a crucial time for math, said Ruth Neild, a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University.

“;This is a time when kids are making a really important transition from arithmetic to mathematics,”; Neild said. “;It takes careful instruction, and if kids can't get that, and really get it, they're not going to succeed in math in high school.”;

The federal No Child Left Behind law defines highly qualified teachers as those with a bachelor's degree, a state license and proven competency in every subject they teach. It has upset some veteran teachers who have been labeled unqualified despite having worked in classrooms for decades.

That is because many teachers who have credentials in one area are considered unqualified under the law if they teach another subject at hard-to-recruit schools. And special-education teachers need to be qualified in special education in addition to the subjects they teach.

“;It's very demoralizing to send parents a notice saying you are not qualified,”; Board of Education member Maggie Cox, a former principal, said about a requirement that schools inform parents of children taught by unqualified instructors.

Under the NCLB law, states were supposed to have all teachers fit the highly-qualified label by the 2005-06 school year or risk losing federal funds. None made it, so the federal Education Department demanded new state plans.

States need to show that schools in poor neighborhoods are not disproportionately staffed with unqualified teachers compared with campuses serving more affluent areas.

That is where Hawaii is lagging, officials acknowledge.

Highly qualified teachers here teach about 66 percent of classes at low-poverty secondary schools and 55.2 percent of classes in high-poverty schools.

At the elementary level those teachers are in 91.9 percent of classes in low-poverty schools and in 87.8 percent of classes in high-poverty schools.

“;It's not a very desirable gap to see,”; said Robert Campbell, director of the Education Department's Program Support and Development Office.

He noted students taught by highly qualified teachers had better reading scores in a recent Hawaii State Assessment exam than children in classes with unqualified teachers.

The Education Department hopes to increase its highly qualified teacher pool and raise annual test results by tailoring professional development to needs of teachers and students at individual schools. Hawaii gets about $13 million in federal funds each year to help teachers become highly qualified.

 

               

     

 

 

CORRECTION