Hawai'i's public schools are at a crucial stage in their first year of implementation of the weighted student formula. If we introduce changes too fast to our inaugural plan, we risk advancing measures that could benefit from a more comprehensive review.

That's why I've proposed to the Board of Education that we take some time now, before we proceed with too many changes, to ensure that the formula includes those factors that most relate to student achievement.

To do that, we need to slow down the process just enough to examine such factors from a school and educational perspective, and make certain that the formula reflects their appropriate value. Such efforts will help ensure the success of the weighted student formula.

The Department of Education and I continue to fully support Act 51, the Legislature's Reinventing Education Act of 2004, which includes the mandate to allocate funds to schools using the weighted student formula.

The intent of the formula is to allocate funds to schools based on the specific needs of each school's students. To do that accurately and fairly, we must first determine the actual cost of educating students with various needs.

We already know that it takes greater resources to provide the same educational opportunities to students who are economically disadvantaged, who require special education services or who have limited English-language skills. However, we are not yet certain about the full set of factors affecting student achievement, or how much additional funding might be necessary for each identified special need.

My proposal is to examine those questions more deliberately and methodically in order to develop a funding formula that is targeted on student achievement.

The weighted student formula we ultimately adopt will still result in funding gains at some schools and losses at others. Those differences will be less controversial if the formula is accepted as fair and justifiable with respect to establishing greater equity in educational opportunity for all students.

For the 2007-08 school year, to provide a sense of continuity and stability for our schools, I've asked the Board of Education to basically follow the current allocation formula for one more year.

The board, recognizing that the current formula was a work in progress that needed improvement and to help schools transition into the new funding method, had correctly limited the effects of the weighted student formula in this first year of implementation to 10 percent of its calculated adjustments. For example, if the formula would reduce a school's budget by $100,000, in this first year, that school's loss was limited to just $10,000.

My proposal is to continue the formula transition plan at a slightly higher rate of 15 percent. Assuming that we will continue to receive a $20 million appropriation to ease the transition to the weighted student formula, only four schools would experience an actual funding loss at the 15 percent rate, and most schools would consider the funding effects manageable.

In the meantime, the DOE, with substantial input from school-level educators, will analyze school budget and student achievement information to produce meaningful recommendations that the Board of Education can use to adjust and fine-tune the weighted student formula.

Prior to this, a Committee on Weights in 2005 and 2006 did a commendable job under time constraints to develop and refine the initial formula.

Both the board and Committee on Weights have requested that the DOE provide increased analysis on "what is the relative cost" to educate a student and on "what does it take" to operate a school.

My proposal is to invest the time and energy into answering those questions, to conduct a careful analysis of what is working in Hawai'i, and to align school budgeting with student achievement.

Patricia Hamamoto is superintendent of the state Department of Education. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.