Audits a 'wake-up call' for Hawai'i's schools

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

The message for administrators at 25 public schools last week was blunt: Improve quickly or face consequences.

In two days of meetings at Dole Cannery, state Department of Education officials and outside experts outlined what will be expected during the next several months at these schools, which have consistently failed to make progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Intervention teams will arrive within the next three weeks to carry out the recommendations of independent audits that detailed the root causes of poor performance and provided what one education official called a "serious wake-up call." Monthly progress reports will chronicle how schools respond.

While the intervention teams will work collaboratively with principals and teachers, it is clear that for many schools this may be the last chance before more drastic sanctions are imposed.

Under the law, the state could force a school to become a charter school, replace the principal or other school staff, contract with a private management company to run the school, or take the school over.

"We told them that the law is very clear about what happens," said Elaine Takenaka, educational administrative services director at the DOE.

These schools are the first in Hawai'i to feel the full pressure of accountability under the law, which requires that students be proficient in core subjects by 2014 and measures progress toward that goal through annual student tests.

The 25 schools targeted by the state have failed to make adequate progress for four or five years — before the law took effect — and are considered in the most urgent need of help. Sixty percent of the state's schools failed to make adequate progress last school year.

Educators have had misgivings about the punitive nature of the law, but others have praised it for forcing states to deal with schools that are persistently falling short.

Many of the schools under scrutiny are on the Leeward Coast or the Big Island, in neighborhoods mired in poverty. Educators have recognized the link between poverty and poor academic performance, and the DOE also understands that many of the schools have struggled over the years to recruit and retain quality teachers and principals.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers audits, based on interviews, data analysis and site visits between November and January, provide a frank and revealing look at the challenges facing these schools.

The audits, which involved 47 schools statewide, found several problems common among the schools, giving the DOE a roadmap for recovery.

The two most prevalent root causes were an inconsistency in connecting school curriculum to statewide reading and math standards, and a lack of involvement and support by parents.

The audits found that many of the schools do not have a consistent process for developing a curriculum that ensures that the state's standards are taught within grade levels and across content areas. There is also a lack of feedback or observation on whether teachers are following state standards, and some teachers have their own lesson plans and grading that are at odds with the state's guidelines.

The findings related to parents were equally harsh. PricewaterhouseCoopers acknowledged that parents may be limited by poverty or work pressures, but found that "a large number of parents at these schools do not take enough responsibility for their children's education and apparently do not instill strong academic values or study habits in their children."

The audits also found that many schools base decisions on how to improve student performance subjectively rather than objectively because administrators and teachers are not adequately analyzing student data. The auditors said a number of teachers do not use classroom assessments to drive instruction or make changes to curriculum based on the needs of their students.

Karen Knudsen, a state Board of Education member, was initially concerned that critics would use the findings to hammer the DOE in the debate over education reform, but she believes the audits are a useful tool.

The most controversial findings, at least for some, were that 28 of the schools audited lacked strong leadership by the principal and 18 schools lacked teachers committed to the state's standards or to challenging all students to meet the standards.

"It helped pinpoint some of the problems," Knudsen said. "It's not very complimentary. It's a serious wake-up call that what they have been doing is not acceptable."

Linda Victor, the principal at Ma'ili Elementary School, said she agrees with the audit of her school, which found that the school needed to better tie its curriculum together with the state's standards in math and reading.

"We're looking at how we do things so our students can do better," Victor said.

Like many of the principals involved in the audits, she also knows she does not have much choice. "This was an imposed process," she said.

Ruth Silberstein, principal at Palolo Elementary School, another school on the intervention list, said her school is taking steps to improve student performance and believes the audit will help teachers and staff stay focused.

"I see it as something very positive," she said. "But the bottom line for any reform is having the money and the people to do it."

Silberstein has a darker view of the sanctions possible under No Child Left Behind. "It's punitive and aggressively coercive," she said.

Each intervention team will have a minimum of three people, an outside expert contracted by the DOE, a representative from the complex-area office for the school, and someone from the school, most likely the principal.

Takenaka, at the DOE, said the state realizes that the intervention teams will only be at the schools for a few weeks before students take the next round of state tests, so the DOE is not expecting dramatic results when the scores are released in the fall.

But the DOE does expect to see improvement through the monthly reports and, ultimately, in test scores for the 2004-2005 school year.

"We don't have great hopes that scores will shoot up because we haven't even started yet," Takenaka said. "But we're going to expect to see results over the next year."

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