Crowding at Koko Head Elementary angers parents

By Adrienne Ancheta
Advertiser Staff Writer

A fourth-grade class with 36 students has parents upset at Koko Head Elementary, and many are also unhappy with the school's proposal to create a combined fourth-and-fifth-grade class to solve the problem.

The class size far exceeds Department of Education standards for student-to-teacher ratios, acknowledged principal Cecilia Lum, but adjustments are made at schools statewide to resolve such issues soon after the start of the school year. A decision will be made any day now at Koko Head.

The class could be split into two with 18 students each, which would be within DOE guidelines of a 27-to-1 student-teacher ratio for third through sixth grades. However, that might not be the best way to allocate the school's teachers, Lum said. Among other options are keeping the class size but splitting some periods so students are taught in sections.

The school has had combination classes, but not in recent years. And parents have been satisfied with them in the past, Lum said.

Combined classes, where two grade levels are taught simultaneously in one classroom, have existed for decades in Hawai'i, though most schools do not use them because of the stress on resources and the controversy they can cause, said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen. Many parents are unfamiliar with such classes, but education experts say they actually can benefit the child.

Still, some parents at Koko Head oppose enrolling their children in a combination class.

"Parents have called to say, 'If the class is too big, I think (the combination class) is good, but don't put my child in it,' " Lum said.

Declining enrollment

Koko Head regularly struggles with declining enrollment, as do schools across Hawai'i Kai because of an aging population and few young families are moving in. Koko Head's enrollment ranges between 330 and 340 students.

Because schools are assigned teachers according to total enrollment in all grade levels, declining enrollment can lead to insufficient staffing for some grades.

Shari Smart, a parent and teacher who had planned to get a geographic exemption to enroll her son in Koko Head before learning that the fourth-grade class was crowded, was concerned that teachers of combination classes do not have the right kind of training for the curriculum.

"I do think you have to be a special kind of teacher to teach a combo," said Smart, who was a student in combination classes at Hahaione Elementary in the 1970s. Between making a combination class and having smaller classes, Smart prefers smaller classes for her son. She sent him to Hahaione rather than Koko Head.

No records exist on how long combined classes have been used or how many schools have them, Knudsen said.

Sense of 'ohana

There are many advantages to multi-age classes, said Patricia Lopes, elementary program chairwoman at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Students build academic confidence, self-esteem and a sense of 'ohana in a combination, she said. The classes are not as disruptive as people might think and can be compared with single-grade situations with students of multiple ability levels.

"If you group them according to interests and academic ability it doesn't really matter what grade levels they are," said Lopes. "What really matters is what they have to learn."

Mari Tadaki, a 9-year-old fifth-grader in the fifth-sixth grade combo at Kamiloiki Elementary, said she is confident because she has to work independently at times. She was in a fourth-and-fifth-grade combo last year.

"If you feel like you need to get more confident in yourself I would suggest being in a combo because you can work to see if you do well by yourself," Mari said. "If you do well, you get more confident."

Dividing classes

Schools differ in deciding how and whom to teach in a combo.

Students at Koko Head would be placed into the combo according to factors such as ability, self-esteem and personality, Lum said. Parents also play a role in the decision.

Kamiloiki divides students primarily by ability so that most in the combo class are in the Gifted and Talented Program. Fairness was an issue when the students were divided because some children who demonstrated high ability were left out of the class. Mari's father, Wayne Tadaki, feels fortunate that his daughter had the chance to be in the class.

"We're very satisfied with her performance because of the quality of her classmates," he said. "She had to do well and put out a lot of effort to keep up."

The Tadakis emphasize involvement because they recognize the pressure on the teacher to teach two different curricula. Mari's teacher will teach the class collectively at times and separately at others, depending on the material. Other schools, such as Waikele Elementary and UH Laboratory School, teach multi-age classes thematically, dividing students into groups by ability and keeping a teacher with a group for multiple years.

Although Mari sometimes wishes she could be with her age group at school, she enjoys working with older students and learning advanced material and would suggest combo classes to students who also like to learn and, for older students, like to help teach younger students.

"You just have to try and do your best, and you can be good at whatever you're trying to achieve," she said.