The days of unconditional tenure and one-size-fits-all salary schedules for educators are fast slipping away. Dialogue nationwide has turned to performance contracts and merit-based pay that would depend on, among other things, student achievement outcomes.

In Hawaii, the Hawaii Department of Education is stalled in its development of performance contracts for principals and is considering ending a bonus program used to attract teachers to certain hard-to-staff geographic areas. And yet Hawaii, torn between its enthusiasm for change and the realities of a significant budget shortfall, plunges head-first into similar reforms proposed by Obama’s Race to the Top initiative. Which of these initiatives is resurrected or tried in Hawaii may well depend on who is in the governor’s office.

So Civil Beat asked each of the three main gubernatorial candidates — Democratic candidates Neil Abercrombie and Mufi Hannemann and Republican candidate James “Duke” Aiona — what their thoughts were on merit-based pay, performance contracts for principals and incentives for hard-to-staff positions. The general consensus is in support of all three concepts, but each candidate has his own ideas for how to go about making them realities in Hawaii.

All three agree teachers should be paid according to their merits as teachers, and that their performance should be determined at least in part by student achievement. Each candidate has a different approach to measuring teacher performance, though.

All three candidates also support the concept of incentives for attracting and retaining teachers in every school and subject area, but their ideas for how to do so range from creating magnet schools (Aiona) to enlisting the help of the University of Hawaii to recruit and turn out teachers in certain subject areas (Hannemann).

Abercrombie, Aiona and Hannemann once again agree that principals should be held accountable for their schools’ performance, but that the accountability should come paired with more expansive authority and flexibility in leading their schools.

On Merit Pay

Good teachers deserve to be rewarded, but the mechanics of ensuring they are will be logistically challenging, Abercrombie said. He suggests he would involve teachers and principals in plotting how to implement a merit pay system.

Aiona takes a strong stance on annual evaluations for educators that would be used along with student achievement outcomes to help determine salary as well as standing within the Hawaii Department of Education.

Hannemann takes a more “it takes a village” approach, stating that he supports merit-based salaries — for groups of teachers (e.g. by school) rather than individuals.

On Incentives for Hard-to-staff Schools

Abercrombie supports the concept of incentives for attracting and retaining teachers but said the issue needs further investigation.

Aiona said he would encourage schools to strengthen their faculty by specializing in certain areas, thereby becoming magnet schools for both students and educators.

Hannemann has the most comprehensive approach, saying it would be important to first determine which schools have staffing problems, then consider how both the department and the University of Hawaii System could help recruit to meet those needs.

On Performance Contracts for Principals

Abercrombie unequivocally supports performance contracts for principals, and with them increased authority for principals to steer their schools.

Aiona believes principals should be compensated according to their performance and should be given more power as chief administrators over all their schools’ affairs.

Hannemann says creating an environment where principals are given authority and held to greater accountability will depend on strong communication between and among all branches and levels of the education system.

Read more about their proposals in their own words.

Merit-Based Pay

Would you implement merit-based pay for teachers? If so, why? If not, why not?

Neil Abercrombie

I agree that good teachers deserve to be rewarded. The devil is in the details, and you cannot design a workable system without involving those who will be impacted by merit-based pay — namely principals and teachers.

I also believe that teachers should be able to reach higher levels of compensation without having to enter administration. That’s why I proposed in my education plan in April to create a more robust career path for teachers to include more incentives, roles and rewards for “master teachers” to stay in the classrooms.

James “Duke” Aiona

I support a rigorous, fair and easy-to-understand evaluation system for teachers and principals, which includes student academic achievement as a measure of performance. I believe in conducting annual evaluations of each teacher and principal and then using these evaluations to compensate, promote, retain and retrain educators.

Mufi Hannemann

In my conversations with public school teachers, many speak of wanting rewards for groups of teachers or schools rather than individual teachers because everyone is interdependent in successfully teaching children. We could look at merit pay for teams or schools, or even school districts because this approach supports the concept of professional learning communities rather than individual performance.

Incentives For Hard-To-Staff Positions

What about a pay schedule that would compensate teachers more for working in hard-to-fill positions?

Neil Abercrombie

I support a number of creative ideas including compensation-related measures. Teachers are a part of the communities they teach in. We need to listen to people at the school level to understand their strategy for attracting and retaining their teachers. Many people I have talked to have some ideas, such as housing teachers in nearby communities and helping with travel costs. Ideas like this need to be explored further.

James “Duke” Aiona

I will encourage the creation of magnet schools using specialized curricula to focus on areas such as creative arts or science, while remaining aligned with national common core standards and connected to project-based, problem-based and service learning in a real world context. Teachers and principals at these schools should be compensated based on student outcomes rather than standard salary scales alone.

Mufi Hannemann

I would consider it, but would first have to analyze the reasons certain positions are hard-to-fill and determine the best way to address the causes for the difficulties and the shortfall. It could be that there are not enough qualified teachers interested in the subject matter, in which case I would work with the university system to improve recruitment and training programs to help meet the needs of the state. I would also need a better understanding of how such a pay schedule would work under collective bargaining. I would consider expanding the current program of student loan repayment for new hires working in Title I schools.



Performance Contracts For Principals

Do you support performance contracts for principals?  If so, why?  If not, why not?


Neil Abercrombie

Yes. Principal performance contracts were proposed in Act 51, but they were never implemented. Many of the principals I’ve talked to would be happy to be held accountable, but they need to have a part in developing those accountability measures. I also believe that if principals are going to be held to a high standard, they need to have the authority to affect change in their schools. We need to bring everyone together and work to determine what kind of performance measures we need to best serve our students.

James “Duke” Aiona 

While principals should be compensated based on the evaluation of the total performance of their schools, they should be provided with incentives to recruit good teachers to challenging school environments. 
 
In addition, we need to encourage our principals to be the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) of their schools by providing them with the flexibility in the administration of their schools, including the use of technology, staffing, professional development and giving parents a stronger voice through their local community councils, to meet the needs of students and the community.
 
We need to ensure principals have the authority to determine how school-level funds are spent to best support the direction and initiatives of their schools.

Mufi Hannemann

I support greater accountability for principals, but I believe that in order to promote success we must provide those principals with across the board decision-making authority over their personnel, programs, and funding. In creating the accountability measures, the lines of communications and collaboration between the DOE, BOE, and school-level administrators will be critical.