Investing In Our Children

Public Education Snapshot
     Clearly, we need to keep our eyes on both specifics and the “big picture” of education in Hawai‘i. With that in mind, I will work with Hawaii’s congressional team towards adjustments in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policies that currently create undue burdens for our schools.  In particular, I am concerned about a “one-size-fits-all” approach toward our schools that does not acknowledge the school and community cultures that characterize the schools. 

     Although standards-based educational approaches are helpful to our schools in making clear what our students need to know, to be able to do and to care about, some initiatives and directions coming from outside schools result in our schools losing their unique and valuable individual characters that reflect their communities.

     While much attention has focused on public education, we cannot leap to simple conclusions about what is going on.  Most headlines in recent memory have reported an unflattering picture of Hawai‘i’s public education performance.  A June 28, 2008 Associated Press article headline read “Poll: Schools not properly preparing kids” and reported that “half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the workforce”.  However, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald actually reported that student assessment scores were up around the state in a July 18, 2008 article.  Student achievement in math and reading as measured by Hawaii State Assessment standards improved by 3 percent in the 2007-2008 school year. 

     So, while NCLB has initiated a process that focuses on targets for each child’s progress resulting in higher achievement for some, it is no secret that schools still face an uphill battle with meeting adequate yearly progress.  Although our students are improving, the federal requirement for “passing” continues to be more stringent; in short, that requirement continues to be a “moving target” for schools.  Consequently, more schools are being labeled as failing and face “restructuring.”

     On another front, changes have been made to the state’s formula for funding public schools that could give larger schools about $200 - $300 more per student.  A plan for the 2009-2010 school year currently under consideration by the Hawai‘i Board of Education would also adjust funding for specific programs at certain schools.  Under the “weighted student formula,” created to bring equity among all schools, schools in rural areas with a high number of low-income families and students not proficient in English, may get more money, since this new system is based on the needs of each student instead of the school as a whole. 

     Although this new system may appear to provide for student needs, important alternative programs for at-risk students on neighbor islands will be cut as funds are re-directed elsewhere.  One such program would be the Big Island’s Youth Leadership Project for which I helped secure funding in an effort to provide the same opportunities provided on O'ahu.  

A Model Based On Community
      The recent success of the Keaukaha community, Keaukaha Elementary principal, faculty and staff in moving the school out of restructuring status to “good standing” provides valuable lessons and insight that can serve as a pathway for others to succeed. The school actually turned down state funding for improvement so that it would not be required to use third-party consultants who were not familiar with the community.  This decision was based on the school community’s conviction that the community had to be at the heart and foundation for meaningful and sustained improvements to develop.

     Studies show families and communities are important partners in the work to ensure positive educational experiences for our children.  As partners, parents, families, and the community are a rich resource of information that can help develop high quality educational services.  We must commit to putting into practice the recognition by developing strong communication pathways so that families and communities can link with decision makers regarding matters and concerns related to education.  By doing this, we will make sure that schools will always be central to and will reflect the communities they represent.
   
     Our educational system needs to acknowledge and encourage the schools’ work to provide excellent services that result in high student achievement, and at the same time, preserve the unique character and culture of their school communities. The system needs to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” mentality that does not address the diversity seen among schools. 

     I will work to give schools back to educators in the school and the school community, without unnecessary assignments of particular approaches, implementation restrictions, and other mandates from outside the schools.  Such initiatives and directions from the outside may actually create barriers to or divert individual schools’ focus on addressing the needs of their students.  Instead, I will work toward providing resources needed by schools to address their own issues.

Leadership At The School Level
    The most pressing challenge is to overcome the apparent dissonance between schools and communities.  Administrators need the technical knowledge of management, curriculum (instruction and assessment), and most importantly, the ability to work with people.  We must acknowledge that it is essential to recruit and train committed members for School Community Councils who should be charged with developing a clear formal descriptive statement about the school culture, its core beliefs and values.

      We must also support efforts started by the Department of Education to provide training and development for teachers as teacher leaders in schools rather than limiting leadership training to educators opting to become administrators.  Both the Hawai‘i education system and the public ultimately place accountability for performance on administrators; therefore we need to provide the appropriate supports to these individuals sitting on the junction point of interfacing with the different constituencies in a manner that can bring about successful, productive outcomes.

Charter Schools
     Because a significant number of students require alternative, and personalized educational approaches, it is important to recognize the important role that Charter Schools play in expanding the options available for these students. Kanu O Ka ‘Aina Charter School has demonstrated that such schools can provide for students who respond to another way of learning and succeeding, without undue challenges based on cultural and learning differences when founded on clear vision and beliefs.

     I believe we must continue to support charter school students and parents, to keep these alternative and/or non-traditional pathways to achievement open, and to consider viable proposals for charter school startups.  It is in our best interest as a community that we reach out as far as we can to provide effective educational opportunities to our young minds and the foundation of our future.

The Next Level
     Secondary schools face more difficult challenges than elementary schools regarding improvement.  Intermediate, middle and high schools are large enterprises with very complex structures.  ln large measure, I believe success at this level starts with getting beyond the notion that our schools are modular. Just as the student populations reflect the uniqueness of their communities, the personality of each school embodies the characteristics of the communities they serve. One-size-fits-all approaches assume that all students learn in the same way. While we can standardize the expectations of adequate progress or student achievement, we must be more flexible in the manner in which learning is delivered.

     Recent studies indicate that creating smaller units such as teams and academies within the large entity of a secondary school can lead to more personalized responses to support students and promote higher levels of achievement.  We must look to push past structural implementation and commit to the curricular, instructional improvements that complement and enhance implementation.  Typically, schools are challenged by a shortage in resources and with the lack of flexibility to arrange the work and collaboration essential to successfully bringing about these sustained improvements. I will look to identify and provide support for the allocation of the resources necessary to help make this transition a reality.

Another Piece To The Puzzle: Early Childhood Development
    According to statistics published by the Aloha United Way, 40% of children in Hawai‘i currently enter kindergarten up to 2 years behind their peers, which means that as many as 6,800 children start their schooling each year with a lesser chance of success. Moreover, recent research into brain development indicates that the first five years of a child’s life is critical to future success in education and the lack of adequate development during this period is one root cause of a child’s subsequent difficulties in our education system, and eventual struggle to reach self-sufficiency.
 
     It is for these reasons we must work to “level the playing field” at an even earlier stage by dedicating more resources for early childhood education to help all children to be ready for learning before they begin kindergarten. Also, because of the diversity that we see among families and communities, providing universal access to early childhood services and ensuring that these services are indeed of high quality, will help all children to be able to hit the ground running when entering our kindergarten through grade 12 services of our public education system.

Keeping Focused On The Task At Hand
      As a product of our local public schools, I am a firm believer in public education.  It builds opportunities for all children that can “level the playing field” of life.  This is the reason support of public schools in Hawai‘i – particularly those of North and East Hawai‘i -- has always been one of my priorities. We all entrust our future to the public education system, so ensuring that supports and resources are available for safe, well-maintained school facilities and for excellent teaching and learning for our children is crucial.  This is not just the work of the few, but the shared responsibility of all.

     I am adamantly opposed to the proposed funding changes that would result in money leaving our schools to be placed in others.  While I will continue to advocate that decision making for public schools continue to make its way closer to the school, decentralization of the Hawai‘i Board of Education will leave our neighbor island schools even more susceptible to unequal distribution of funds.  In most states with local school boards, schools in lower income districts receive much less funding than those located in affluent areas.  The fact that recent studies rank per capita personal income for Hawaii County fourth out of our state’s four counties speaks to potential funding disparity that Big Island communities face by losing a centralized funding mechanism.

     We must continue to sustain the push to find funding equity for neighbor island schools that centralization can bring and realize the benefits of developing identities for each school by integrating more closely with the community served.  There is a direct correlation between community involvement and student achievement, and we must continue to strengthen community governance initiatives.