Public school teachers in Hawaii have rejected a contract that called for a move to a performance-based evaluation and compensation system, as required by the Race to the Top grant that the state won from the Obama administration, the Washington Post reports. The rejection comes shortly after Hawaii was warned [1] by the U.S. Department of Education that its $75 million Race to the Top grant had been put on “high-risk status”—the first state to be so sanctioned — because it had not moved quickly enough to implement specific reforms. Sixty-seven percent of about 9,000 teachers, counselors and others represented by the Hawaii State Teachers Association opposed the contract, which was seen as a way to move Race to the Top efforts forward and improve its status with Washington…