Program combines business, education

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

The staff at Holomua Elementary School thought students were using the library until they started crunching the numbers.

It turned out that kids weren't as hooked on reading as teachers had hoped.

Because the school was using a business-model approach, officials were able to recognize the problem and move to solve it.

"It hooks kids who normally wouldn't come to the library," Pang said. "It gets them into the habit of coming to the library, and then they start looking around."

Holomua is one of three Hawai'i schools pilot testing a business-model program that has been used in Florida to help improve and evaluate schools there.

Schools tally data on indicators that they have chosen as influencing student performance: library visits, attendance, discipline referrals, volunteer hours, staff development, tardies, after-school tutoring and other factors.

The weekly results are compared against the school's goals in much the same way a business would look at daily or weekly receipts. Schools know immediately which areas are problems or successes, and can change their focus or procedures to keep improving.

The Hawai'i Educational Performance System was initiated by Mark Hunter, a Tampa-based banker and school volunteer, and Rep. Mark Takai D-34th (Waimalu, Newtown, Pearl City), who met Hunter at an education conference and asked him to work with some Hawai'i schools.

Sustained quality sought

Hunter, who has brought the Educational Performance System to schools in Tampa and Orlando, likens the system to a sports team looking at its statistics during the game instead of afterward, or to a weekly plan for exercise.

"You do it in athletics, why not in academics?" Hunter said.

He said it makes more sense to break things into weekly chunks than to look at the long-term goal, which, for most schools, is their performance on a yearly standardized test. Good performance on a weekly basis means schools will likely do better on the tests, he said.

"The idea is that sustained quality work will get results," Hunter said.

Takai said he likes the program because it measures things that teachers say are important in learning and doesn't just look at the one test score.

"What is the alternative? The alternative is what we have," Takai said. "People are working hard. We're just hoping and praying that our test scores are up. The question we need to ask everyone is, how do you know you're working toward your goals?"

Makaha and Palisades elementary schools also participated in the project this year. The three schools set their own goals, which Hunter said allows them to take into account the uncontrollable, outside factors that schools have to deal with, such as poverty, the number of parents who have attended college and how many students are speaking English as a second language. Every campus has different goals, he said.

Program is free

Hunter donates his time and expertise to the program; he paid for his trip to Hawai'i last week — his third for this project — out of his own pocket. HEPS is free for any school that wants to participate and takes relatively little time to do, he said.

Schools e-mail Hunter the data each Friday afternoon. By Monday morning, he's crunched their numbers and sent them a brief report.

Pang said his teachers turn in data once a week. A vice principal is in charge of the program and makes sure everyone participates.

"It's easy to track," Pang said. "The hardest thing is remembering to turn it in. I got scolded twice already because I forgot to put in my data."

In addition to the library changes, Holomua has adjusted its tardy procedures and worked on ways to give students more quality time on computers. Now Pang and his faculty are considering what other factors they want to track in the next school year.

"How many schools can tell you that?" Takai said. "If you call a school, can the principal tell you how they're doing that week? That in a nutshell is bringing what the business community does to the schools."

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.