DOE Required To Collect More Teacher Data
A recently signed law includes more specifics on what the Hawaii DOE must report in order in order to help narrow the teacher retention gap.
Starting in the coming school year, the Hawaii Department of Education will be required to collect data on the number of classrooms around the state that do not have a licensed teacher for a quarter or more out of the year.
The data collection is mandated by a new law signed by Gov. David Ige last month. It’s aimed at trying to provide a better picture of where exactly in the state a high 鈥 and persistent 鈥 concentration of unlicensed teachers are based.
The DOE currently is only the number of classrooms statewide that employ an emergency hire. is a full-time employee who did not go through a teacher preparation program but can be assigned to one school the entire year.
An unlicensed teacher could very well be a substitute who is cycling through a classroom on a day to day basis.
The new required data point 鈥渨ill help the Legislature, schools, and Hawaii (teacher) preparation programs know the true need for closing the teacher recruitment and retention gap,鈥 Lynn Hammonds, the executive director of Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, wrote in of the bill.
The DOE will be required to collect and submit the new data to HTSB, which is the state teacher licensing entity.
The information will be included in the HTSB鈥檚 annual report, likely starting not until the year after next.
鈥淥ne of the key factors in handling any problem, in this case the shortage of qualified teachers, is to have the data of where, and why we have the problem,鈥 HSTA president Corey Rosenlee wrote in testimony in support.
The DOE did not take a position on .
The public charter schools will individually be required to collect the same data point.
