The Hawaii Department of Education R.E.A.C.H. (Reinventing Education Act for the Children of Hawaii) program is currently underway and is aimed to improve education for the children of Hawaii through fair funding levels, involving families and the community, and providing incentives to teachers for obtaining higher levels of education and certification. These incentives include salary bonuses and fee reimbursements for Hawaii teachers that choose to advance their education.
Special education teachers are in particularly high demand for teaching in Hawaii, where students with special needs continue to make up the majority of public school enrollment. In 2008, 51% of the students enrolled in public schools in Hawaii were students with special needs, presenting expanded opportunities for teachers with appropriate training to work with this student population.
Over 1300 new teachers are hired each year by the Hawaii Department of Education and the R.E.A.C.H. program is working to improve Hawaii schools for both students and teachers, showing an increased dedication to enhancing the educational opportunities available to students, as well as the working conditions for Hawaii teachers.
Hawaii Teacher Requirements
Future prospects for teaching in Hawaii will remain strong for many years to come. Hawaii is like other areas of the United States who do not produce enough BA degree holders locally to fill all available teaching jobs. In Hawaii, about half of all newly hired teachers leave the islands during their first three years in teaching.
Hawaii has other educational problems that they share with other states in the United States as well. As a country, there is a shortage of qualified teachers for math and science departments, and for some areas within the special education settings. Until our overall educational systems produce the needed teaching personnel for these areas, shortages will remain within the teaching industry.
For educators living in Hawaii, the guaranteed shortages within mathematics, sciences, and the specialty areas such as computers, special education, and industrial training areas leaves bargaining power for all educators choosing to enter these fields of educational employment.
Currently there are incentives in place to entice college graduates into these hard-to-fill areas of employment, and these incentives may be added to shortly through new presidential mandates and plans being discussed in association with ideas on how to revamp and energize the American public education system as a whole.
Teaching in Hawaii in the future may include longer classroom hours, or more teaching days on the calendar to provide a better learning environment for students. Other suggestions being discussed are extra incentive pay-perks for teachers, elimination of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ programs, and an increase in public awareness advertising campaigns to increase funding for all public schools.