MEDIA RELEASE

All Hawaii public school principals will receive enhanced supports and evaluations beginning in the 2013-14 school year under an agreement between the state Department of Education and the Hawaii Government Employees Association on a new Comprehensive Evaluation System for School Administrators (CESSA).

CESSA implementation began with 81 schools in August 2012 as principals and their supervisors, the Complex Area Superintendents (CASs), jointly set goals for the year.

As the DOE worked through the implementation, and as part of its shared commitment to continuously improve and to provide supports aligned with the CESSA, it made sense to expand the implementation to all schools.

Additionally, feedback from school principals was also taken into account.

Implementation will continue in all schools this school year with training for all principals and CASs. Feedback from the first year of implementation will be used to refine the system in 2014-2015.

“Effective school leadership is critical to student achievement,” DOE Deputy Superintendent Ronn Nozoe said. “The department is committed to ensuring principals, teachers and schools have the support they need to reach their goals.”

Each principal will receive a rating based half on Student Outcomes (Domain 1) and half on Principal Leadership Practice (Domains 2-6).

The five different leadership and performance domains include:

* Professional growth and learning
* School planning and progress
* School culture
* Professional qualities and instructional leadership
* Stakeholder support and engagement

CESSA is tied to a system of support based on short- and long-range goals for principals’ professional improvement efforts.

“This was truly a collaborative effort by HGEA and DOE teams with a goal towards raising the bar in school leadership,” stated Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi.

This agreement between HGEA and DOE aligns with the state Board of Education policy 2055 on teacher and principal performance evaluation. The DOE is currently in the second year of a seven-year strategic plan that calls for preparing graduates for college or careers.

Effective school leadership is fundamental to the success of this strategic plan. The DOE and HGEA will continue to work together to provide school principals with guidelines, training and support in advance of successful implementation next school year.

— Find out more:
http://hawaiidoe.org