The Hawaii Department of Education “already has the legal authority to implement teacher evaluations,” Asst. Supt. Stephen Schatz told me today.

“In addition, the new policies set forth by the Hawaii State Board of Education will help to strengthen and clarify this authority,” he said.

I was asking him about the impact on Race to the Top funding based on the Legislature’s decision Tuesday to abandon a bill that would have have created a teacher evaluation system linked to student progress.

Schatz reiterated that during the visit last month by the U.S. DOE’s review team, the department “demonstrated clear and compelling evidence of progress across all facets of Hawaii’s Race to the Top plan.”

He also pointed at a program that 18 schools are piloting, with another 60 to be added next year.

“Although the bill requiring performance evaluations did not pass, we will continue to move forward with our teacher evaluation pilot program, which is aimed at improving educator effectiveness.”

House Education Chair Roy Takumi seemed skeptical Wednesday. He told me that Hawaii is the only state receiving RTTT funds that doesn’t have a law tying educators’ performance evaluations to student growth.