Meshing kindergarten-to-college system

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

State school superintendent Pat Hamamoto and University of Hawai'i president Evan Dobelle are exploring a kindergarten-through-college system of education in Hawai'i, with enhanced opportunities for students and possible cost savings for taxpayers.

"The days of operating in separate silos have to come to an end," Dobelle said.

Hamamoto said the two leaders have already "begun the conversation" with a working group of representatives from the Department of Education, Board of Education, Board of Regents and UH administration. A more permanent group will be put in place in the coming weeks.

"The idea is wonderful," Hamamoto said. "We've always supported a K-16 system so that when a student graduates they have the necessary skills and abilities and motivation to be able to go on and be successful."

In forging the partnership, the two already are exchanging ideas for ways to solve lingering problems, such as low math and English test scores, by using resources interactively, including:

• Offering in-service in-school training programs for student teachers that would result in teaching positions at the in-service schools.
• Offering a two-year degree program for "reading support positions" to be offered by UH's community colleges.
• Exploring the possibility of creating a new network of specialized high schools with specific focuses such as math and science.
• A shared and joint purchasing system.
• Offering tuition waivers for mid-career professionals who want to become teachers, in exchange for service to areas of high need in Hawai'i.

Dobelle called such a program a "teacher corps" and suggested recruiting for it the same way athletes are recruited. He said some of the teacher programs could be in place by the spring of 2003.

"Vocational education, nursing and teaching have to expand to meet the demands," he said. "We're recruiting from the Mainland when we can grow our own."

The most recent DOE statistics show that the number of newly hired teachers coming from the Mainland surpassed locally trained teachers for the first time in the 2000-01 school year, with 51 percent of the new hires — 750 — educated on the Mainland, compared to 672 educated in Hawai'i.

Hamamoto said she sees the need for future teachers to continue coming out of the UH College of Education, encompassing an increasingly broad range of new skills, including high-tech computer knowledge, advanced classroom management skills, testing and measuring skills and stronger basics in ways to teach reading.

"You also look for the heart," said Hamamoto. "To me the heart of an educator is more than just caring for students. You look for that sense of awareness, the engaged teacher who wants to teach. Through that you have the engaged student who wants to learn."

Dobelle said there's also a need for a comprehensive strategic education plan for the state, that would not just cover K-16, but the years before kindergarten as well.

The Head Start programs, which don't have adequate money, aren't enough, he said, suggesting that a consortium of Hawai'i foundations join forces with the schools and state government to provide the necessary money to provide the early educational nurturing children need to increase their success in school.

"We have a responsibility to the 'ohana to step in early," he said. "An enormous amount of education is remediation."

In December, Kamehameha Schools was the first to launch such a community outreach program that would involve off-campus partnerships with public and private schools to broadly expand early education programs for children of Hawaiian ancestry.

These initiatives are designed to stretch the reach of early education beyond the 1,057 children now being served by the schools.

Dobelle said he and Hamamoto have come to "a common ground" and that it was the first time in 20 years such conversations were taking place.

"We're all partners," he said, telling Hamamoto: "Your students are my students."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.