Hawai'i State Team

Journey Map

Team Hawai'i described how the Collaborative helped their state find creative ways to surf the challenging waves in their state's educator workforce.

Team Hawai'i

When asked to describe their journey in the Collaborative, Team Hawai'i used the metaphor of S.U.R.F.I.N.G. to illustrate the way their state is making an impact using community-based recruiting to ride the waves of educator workforce challenges that are unique to their state.

Exploring their data helped Hawai'i identify their state's unique challenges and three focal areas of need:

To address these challenges, Hawai'i is pursing four policy approaches:

Teacher Academy

  • Be more present in high schools to educate and bring awareness to students about the teaching profession.
  • Provide paid substitute courses so students can substitute teach after they graduate high school.

Teacher Interim Pilot Project

  • Recognize the need to increase student numbers in our Educator Preparation Program (EPPs).
  • With limited funding, provide a paid internship for 30 students who will be graduating in the following Spring semester.
  • Include other resources to support our candidates to help with retention and keep them within our department.

Teacher Registered Apprenticeship

  • Secure funding (grants) through DLNR to pay for students entering a Teacher's Education Program within the State of Hawaii.

Pay for Courses for Unlicensed Teachers

  • Fund a semester of courses for unlicensed teachers currently employed with the Department to help them obtain their teaching license.

Pay Differentials

Hawai'i also offered financial incentives to teachers in high-need shortage areas. By offering pay differentials ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 for career and technical education (CTE), Hard-to-Fill (HTF), Special Education, and in Hawaiian Immersion schools. For the HTF differential, Hawai'i uses a 4-tiered scale to offer bonuses to staff meeting relevant criteria in hard-to-staff schools.

  • Tier 1 Complex teachers receive a $3,000 differential.
  • Tier 2 Complexes meet two of the criteria levels and teachers receive a $5,000 differential.
  • Tier 3 Complexes meet three criteria levels and teachers receive a $7,500 differential.
  • Tier 4 Complexes meet all four criteria levels and teachers receive an $8,000 differential.

Impact

Hawai'i has seen positive impacts reducing shortages using differential pay. The GTL Center and CALDER Center collaborated on a recent impact analysis of the initiative and found that it reduced the proportion of vacant special education teaching positions by 32% while also reducing the proportion of special education positions that were vacant or filled by an unlicensed teacher by 35%.

State Journey Maps

Hawai'i: S.U.R.F.I.N.G

Team Hawai'i used the metaphor of S.U.R.F.I.N.G. to illustrate the way their state is thinking about using community-based recruiting to ride the waves of educator workforce challenges that are unique to their state.

Ohio: The Path to Action

Team Ohio described their whole journey from team formation to recent legislative road bumps, as well as the educator workforce strategies underway in the state.

Louisiana: Finding Clarity

Team Louisiana described how their experience helped to shift their team's level of understanding from cloudy confusion to shining clarity, which in turn has helped streamline action planning and produce meaningful impacts for the field.

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