Teachers’ Workday Is Difficult to Pin Down

Hours of labor outside the classroom often lost in official tallies.

A recent news story on teacher work hours in Hawaii had the education community doing a double take.

The report, still in preliminary form, came from a committee made up of members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the state education department. A local newspaper, The Honolulu Advertiser , based on findings in the report, calculated that educators in the state work 15½ hours on average each day .

State education department officials quickly distanced themselves from the report, saying their own participation on the committee that produced it...