DOE sending troubleshooters

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

The state Department of Education will send intervention teams into 25 schools this month in the hopes of reversing several years of poor performance and saving the campuses from further sanctions under federal law.

"I really believe it provides us an avenue as well as some direction about what we need to do," state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto told the Board of Education yesterday.

The DOE released a list of targeted schools but did not disclose specific problems or recommendations at individual campuses. DOE officials will discuss the recommendations with school principals over the next few weeks, and the intervention teams should arrive by the end of the month.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that schools make annual progress toward having all students proficient in reading and math by 2014. Schools that fail to make progress over time must offer parents the option of transferring their children to another school or free tutoring; schools that consistently struggle could be restructured under new staff or taken over by the state.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers was asked to audit 47 schools in Hawai'i that had failed to make adequate progress for four or five years, even before the new federal law went into effect. After the audits were completed, the DOE targeted those needing the most help.

Elaine Takenaka, educational administrative services director at the DOE, said none of the schools is on the brink of a takeover. "They are looking for help," she said. "We will know within a few weeks whether progress is happening."

At Nanakuli High & Intermediate School, one of those targeted for intervention, principal Levi Chang said the campus has inexperienced teachers serving students from an area with high levels of poverty. He said he believes the school is making progress.

"The playing field has to be leveled or the have-nots will always be have-nots," Chang said. "Out here, survival is a priority. Education, I'm sorry to say, is not."

Retired Army Lt. Col. Richard Griggs, an ROTC instructor at Nanakuli, said he does not believe that the teachers are unqualified or uncommitted to the job. "I just think we have to stop blaming people," he said. "I don't know where we are going with this, but the bottom line is our kids can do it."

Several members of the school board were also sensitive about the way the audits were presented, worrying that some of the conclusions would give ammunition to those who claim the DOE is failing its students.

Patrick Oki, of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said many of the schools need more professional development to improve staff.

"Students are being tested on the standards," he told the board. "Teachers need to teach the standards."

At many schools, the audits found, decisions on how to improve student achievement were not based on adequate student data analysis. Many campuses also had inadequate support from superintendents of school-complex areas and from critical ally teams, in part because the superintendents are having trouble attracting and keeping staff.

The audits also found that many schools lacked a strong principal and, at a lesser number of schools, teachers committed to teaching the state's learning standards. Principals, the audits found, are often burdened by administrative duties and some schools have had high principal and teacher turnover.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers noted that socioeconomic factors such as poverty and substance abuse may limit parent involvement, along with the likelihood that many parents may be working more than one job.

"While many parents value education for their children," the auditors said, "some are unable or unwilling to provide educational support at home and rely entirely on the school to educate their children."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.