HCR101

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	101
TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

URGING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A TEACHER CADET PROGRAM TO RECRUIT HAWAII'S BRIGHTEST AND BEST PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR TEACHING CAREERS IN THE HAWAII PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

WHEREAS, the shortage of qualified teachers for Hawaii public schools has increased markedly in recent years and, more troubling still, this shortage shows no sign of receding in the years ahead; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii public in the 2001 Hawaii Opinion Poll on Public Education declared teacher recruitment and retention to be among the top ten biggest problems facing Hawaii public schools; and

WHEREAS, the shortage of qualified teachers has been made all the worse by the scarcity of qualified certificated teachers in geographically hard-to-fill areas of Molokai, Lanai, Maui (Hana and Keanae), and the Big Island (Kau and Kohala) and special education teachers statewide; and

WHEREAS, in the 2001-2002 school year alone, the Department of Education hired one thousand five hundred fifty-two new teachers compared to nine hundred six in 1996-1997, representing an astounding seventy-one per cent increase in just five years; and

WHEREAS, in meeting its teacher needs, the Department of Education has had to increasingly turn to out-of-state teachers, as evidenced by 57.2 per cent of newly-hired teachers coming with out-of-state degrees in 2001-2002 compared to 47.9 per cent in 1995-1996; and

WHEREAS, on average, fifty-five per cent of teachers recruited from outside of the State do not return after the second year and nearly sixty-five per cent do not return after the third year; and

WHEREAS, innovative programs already exist nationally and locally to recruit and prepare future teachers from among the brightest and motivated high school students; and

WHEREAS, three such programs are the Teacher Cadet Program in South Carolina, the Hawaii Department of Education Summer Journey Program in Teaching in two Leeward Oahu schools, and the University of Hawaii - Department of Education Future Teachers Workshop at the University of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the South Carolina Teacher Cadet Program offers telling evidence of its effectiveness, which includes one hundred forty-seven high schools in that state partnering with twenty-three colleges and universities and serving two thousand six hundred students each year, roughly one-fourth of them males and over one-third minority with College Board SAT scores exceeding the national average by fifty points, nearly forty per cent indicating they plan to teach, and over two thousand five hundred former teacher cadets now teaching in South Carolina schools; and

WHEREAS, the South Carolina Teacher Cadet program has been adopted for use in schools in nineteen other states, selected by CBS for inclusion in a two-hour prime time documentary on American education, featured in articles in professional publications, and recognized nationally as a prototype for recruiting high school students for careers in teaching; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Education Summer Journey Program in Teaching that began in the summer of 2002 at James Campbell High School and Waianae High School in Leeward Oahu to address the "severe shortage of qualified school personnel and a need to 'grow our own' employees to work for the Department of Education" offers its own evidence of effectiveness, which includes two of seven Class of 2002 graduates enrolled in the University of Hawaii system, both expressing an interest in becoming teachers, one employed at Sea Life Park and planning to enroll in Leeward Community College, two unable to afford college at this time, but volunteering their time and services at Maili Elementary School, and one saving for college by working full-time while tutoring friends and relatives; and

WHEREAS, for 2003, the Summer Journey Program has a plan in place to expand its enrollment to sixty students from four Leeward Oahu high schools, namely James Campbell, Waianae, Waipahu, and Nanakuli; and

WHEREAS, the Future Teachers Workshop is a partnership between the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Office of Multicultural Student Services and the Department of Education that offers a four-week workshop emphasizing teaching in mixed ability, culturally, and socially diverse classrooms; and

WHEREAS, the Future Teachers Workshop has enrolled over one hundred twenty high school students since its inception in 1992, with twenty-seven of them now teaching in Hawaii schools; and

WHEREAS, to preserve and substantially strengthen the common theme running through the three efforts just described -- that of creating career pathways in teaching -- a coalition of local educational groups organized and led by the Hawaii Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary society for women educators, and whose members include the Department of Education, Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii Education Association, University of Hawaii College of Education and Leeward Community College, University of Hawaii College of Education Alumni Association, Brigham Young University-Hawaii, and Chaminade University of Hawaii, has been meeting for over a year to create a Hawaii Teacher Cadet Program; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of this program is to attract Hawaii's brightest and best public high school students to teaching careers in the Hawaii public school system through a two-year Career Pathway curriculum spanning grades 11 and 12; and

WHEREAS, this curriculum consists of formal courses covering a range of topics on the nature of the learner and learning, teaching strategies and styles, organization and management of the school and school system, teacher salaries and benefits, issues in public education, and more; and

WHEREAS, this curriculum also provides for supervised hands-on experiences as teacher aides, tutors, and laboratory assistants; and

WHEREAS, Kaimuki High School in Honolulu and James Campbell High School in Leeward Oahu have stepped forward for the program's first implementation phase, and Waianae High School, Kapolei High School, and Pearl City High School in Leeward Oahu, Farrington High School in Honolulu, Kahuku High School in Windward Oahu, and Moanalua High School in Central Oahu are likely to follow; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Teacher Cadet Program will work with and through the Future Educators of America clubs in Hawaii public high schools to recruit many more able and ambitious students; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Teacher Cadet Program coalition is actively working with Leeward Community College to grant teacher cadets joint high school graduation and college-level course credits through the college's Running Start program; and

WHEREAS, the coalition's other tasks in the months ahead are to apply for federal funds and foundations grants, search for college scholarships for teacher cadets, investigate tuition reimbursements for cadets who complete state-approved teacher education programs in Hawaii and later teach full-time in Hawaii public schools, and seek signing bonuses for cadets who later decide to teach in Hawaii public schools; and

WHEREAS, the coalition is committed to stay and work together over the long haul, engaging in thoughtful dialogue and providing technical support on a level that would enable Hawaii's teacher cadets to gain the knowledge, practice the skills, and acquire the attitudes and traits for making teaching in Hawaii's public schools their careers of first choice; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the Senate concurring, that the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Chairperson of the Hawaii Teacher Cadet Program are urged to establish a systematic statewide teacher cadet program to recruit Hawaii's brightest and best public high school students for teaching careers in the Hawaii public school system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Chairperson of the Hawaii Teacher Cadet Program are requested to:

(1) Report on the status of the Hawaii Teacher Cadet Program and the progress the program has made in addressing Hawaii's teacher-shortage problem with high-quality, homegrown teachers coming out of Hawaii public schools;

(2) Provide an estimate of the program's future costs and plans for establishing a teacher cadet program statewide; and

(3) Suggest various incentives for encouraging and assisting teacher cadets to enroll in local teacher training institutions and later teach in Hawaii public schools;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education, Chairperson of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii, Superintendent of Education, President of the University of Hawaii, Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dean of the College of Education of the University of Hawaii, Chancellor of the University of Hawaii - West Oahu, Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Chancellor for Community Colleges, and the President of the Hawaii Alpha Delta Kappa.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Teacher Cadet Program