Education First Consulting

The Issue

 Over the years, Hawai‘i has demonstrated a commitment to college and career readiness as the goal of the high school diploma, but still struggles to ensure that all of its students succeed. As the most geographically isolated island system on Earth, Hawai‘i faces unique challenges in recruiting and retaining highly effective teachers in the lowest-performing schools. The U.S. Education Department's Race to the Top competition was an opportunity to unify the state and create a coherent reform agenda to ensure college and career readiness, increase higher education enrollment and completion rates, and eliminate achievement gaps.

What We Did

Education First has deep experience assisting other states with their Race to the Top applications - Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee - and began its engagement with the Hawai‘i State Department of Education in winter 2009. After a rigorous assessment of Hawai‘i's unsuccessful Phase 1 application, we assisted the leadership team in refining its overall application vision, and Education First produced a national analysis of Phase 1 finalists with state-by-state comparisons that showed how Hawai‘i stacked up against the competition.

Education First facilitated multiple strategy and working sessions to help determine the direction and content of its Phase 2 application.  We provided a content expert/facilitator to support workgroups for each section of the application, working intensely with these teams to guide development of the proposals, strategize on new approaches, and offer advice on political and policy issues. We worked side-by-side with Hawai‘i throughout the application process, including co-authoring the 214-page narrative, advising on the budget and ensuring rigor and coherence across the entire application. We also prepared the five-person "pitch team" for its interview with the USED.

After Hawai‘i was announced as one of the winning states in Phase 2, they asked Education First to help guide the state through its "First 100 Days" of launch/implementation. We developed a four-year stakeholder engagement and communication plan, advised on agency organizational structure, Race to the Top oversight and communication and decisionmaking structures, and supported a talent search for new staff.  Moreover, Education First provided initial staffing (research, project management and planning) for the Zones of School Innovation and teacher evaluation and compensation while the state recruited new staff.  

The Outcome

On August 24, 2010, Hawai‘i was announced as one of 10 winners of Race to the Top's Phase 2 competition. The second phase of the competition was stiff, with 36 states and the District of Columbia applying, including all of the Phase 1 finalists. Hawai‘i's application ranked third among the successful states and the state was awarded $75 million to carry out its reform plan.  

Why It Matters

 Hawai‘i is a single SEA/LEA and has 178,000 students, making it the nation's 10^th largest school district. It plans to make student growth count for 50 percent of teacher and principal evaluations, and the teachers' union has agreed to negotiate a performance-based compensation system. Given the state's rack record of performance, states across the country can learn from Hawai‘i's reform efforts to improve outcomes for all students.