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Gov. Neil Abercrombie vowed in his State of the State speech Monday that Hawaii will finish the Race to the Top with or without the teachers union’s cooperation.

But going it alone could continue to jeopardize the state’s federal grant, which was already placed on “high-risk” status in December.

A couple of key education reforms promised in the grant application depend on buy-in from the union: annual teacher evaluations and a performance-based pay system.

After talking about leaving behind “the drama of the recent past,” like the Hawaii State Teachers Association‘s case against the state before the Hawaii Labor Relations Board and the union’s now two-time rejection of agreements reached in collective bargaining negotiations, Abercrombie got down to details.

“We will be using all management, administrative, legislative and legal tools we have at our disposal to implement an evaluation system that not only measures, but achieves student growth,” he said Monday. “We wanted to cross the Race to the Top finish line side-by-side with the HSTA. Make no mistake we will cross that finish line.”

He had already made it clear at a press conference three days ago that most of the state’s Race to the Top commitments “never had to be negotiated” with the union, including the one promising an annual teacher evaluation system.

Although the Hawaii Department of Education currently only evaluates teachers once every five years, if that, it is true that annual evaluations for teachers and principals have . If the union doesn’t want to help, the state can exercise its management rights to design and implement annual evaluations, Abercrombie said on Friday.

“The provisions for evaluations are there right now,” he said on Friday.

But if he wants to “finish” the Race to the Top and receive the rest of the state’s $75 million grant without getting disqualified first, the governor may not be able to leave the union behind.

The 2010 grant application banked heavily on a letter of support from HSTA, and the fact that the state had “successfully engaged” the teachers union in developing the evaluations to improve teacher effectiveness.

According to Hawaii’s application, both the Department of Education and HSTA agreed to “measure teacher effectiveness” using the following criteria:

• 50% will be based on student learning gains, using measures described in Section (D)(2)(i) above; and
• 50% will be based on teacher practice as rated by: multiple observers; stakeholder satisfaction; teacher knowledge and skills as measured by professional growth; and school-based leadership and service.

But Hawaii also committed to collaborating with the union on a performance-based pay system — because performance pay, the governor acknowledged Friday, is by law a matter for collective bargaining.

His education policy adviser, Tammi Chun, explained that while performance pay may be delayed until teachers ratify a new contract, a bigger-picture perspective on Hawaii’s Race to the Top assurances shows the state is making progress. Some of the big education reforms Hawaii has already begun implementing include:

• : Nationally aligned curriculum standards that will help states accurately compare student achievement.
• Data for School Improvement: A data system that teachers and school administrators can use to create informal assessments that will help guide their teaching strategies.
• : An interactive system that tracks student information and behavior with more than 100 different metrics and reports, including test scores, absence records, family income status, etc. This also can be used to guide teachers’ educational strategies in the classroom.
• : Two high-need areas in the state where the Department of Education is piloting various reforms, including teacher evaluations.

While Abercrombie promises to continue pressing for a contract that the teachers will ratify, he says he’s done waiting on the union to implement promised education reforms.

“We cannot wait any longer,” he said on Monday.