At a time when Hawai'i's public schools can't fill all their vacancies, a number of trained teachers — some of the state's best — are serving in another capacity for the Department of Education.

This year, the DOE has 450 "resource teachers," up from 164 a decade ago. That compares with 400 vacancies three weeks before school started this year. These resource teachers serve as mentors, curriculum coordinators, coaches or any other function that will help classroom teachers improve the quality of their teaching, and consequently student achievement.

Education officials, and even the state teachers union, are quick to point out it is too simplistic to think of using these teachers to fill the vacancies, as even an experienced resource teacher may not be qualified to teach in the subjects where the need is greatest.

"There's no evidence that there's a match with the resource teachers being pulled out and the vacancies," said Joan Husted, executive director of the teachers' union.

The resource teacher's role is actually intended to lighten the classroom teacher's load. If resource teacher positions are cut, Husted said, "their tasks aren't eliminated. They are given to classroom teachers to do."

Kathy Kawaguchi, assistant superintendent in the office of curriculum, instruction and student support, said the DOE has maintained an emphasis on making sure there are teachers in the classroom, and the resource teacher positions do not take away from that.

"It's very difficult to establish these positions that are not classroom-based teachers," she said.

However, with more teachers retiring or leaving the system and more inexperienced teachers coming in, the need for the professional development the resource teachers offer increases every year, she said.

Randy Hitz, dean of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa College of Education, said it is common practice among other school systems to have these teachers available to provide their expertise to those in the classroom. "They serve an important function," he said.

POSITIONS ESSENTIAL

With schools under the gun to continually boost student test scores under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, DOE officials say these resource positions can be critical, particularly as the entire school system makes the transition to standards-based learning.

"There's a big shift in practice and the resource teachers are helping with that," said Lea Albert, a Windward District Complex Area superintendent.

The resource teachers in Windward District's peer mentoring program have helped improve retention numbers among new teachers by giving them an experienced teacher to guide them through the first year in a nonthreatening, nonevaluative way. Elly Tepper, a consulting teacher with the program, said that the data indicate the mentoring has also improved the quality of teaching among new teachers, as indicated by their students' performance.

Tepper said part of her role is to provide resources above and beyond what classroom teachers can access themselves.

"We recognize that teachers in the classroom position are in a boiling pot. It's the most dynamic, challenging, stressful, changing environment in which anyone can work," she said.

Mililani High School science teacher Chris Johnson said the support he got from mentor teacher Eric Tong helped ease his transition into the DOE.

"It makes you feel wanted. It made me feel like a member of a team. It made me really feel these people were interested in my success," he said.

Tong, who taught physics classes of his own, helped guide Johnson through purchasing procedures, administrative tasks and everything else he needed to know as a new teacher, rather than sending him in to face a full classroom with no assistance.

"It's a grind and a haul and if you don't have the organizational skills and you don't know how the system works, you end up getting lost," he said. "If you have someone there to guide you, it's terrific."

EARNING RESPECT

If Husted has one criticism about pulling resource teachers out of the classroom, it is that some of the state's best teachers are being tapped to serve an administrative function.

Albert agrees that the teachers she has serving as mentors were excellent classroom teachers — Tepper was state Teacher of the Year in 2000 — but she argues that they have to be.

"We have to have this kind of teacher in order to earn the respect of other teachers," she said. She adds that they are not expected to do administrative or clerical work.

Tepper said that after 35 years in the classroom, it is time to pass along what she knows to the next generation and have a broader impact.

"I'm not going in with the attitude that I'm the expert and I'm trying to clone myself," she said. "I'm helping them develop their own expertise and develop their own strengths and skills and become strong leaders on their own."

Tepper also disputes the notion that resource teachers spend their days in meetings or in the office.

"I'm busier than ever," she said, noting that Albert wants the peer mentors to spend as much time in the schools as possible to work with teachers.

"The goal is to improve teacher quality across the district and ensure that every child is getting a quality education," Tepper said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.