ISLAND VOICES
Make the call on education

David H. Rolf is a former member of the National Education Goals Panel's Future of the Goals Task Force, and the 1999 Governor's Task Force on Education.

Those of us raising families here in Hawai'i will be judged on how well we weighed in on the issues of our time.

Hundreds of thousands of us, including those in my family, phoned in to vote for American Idol's Camile Velasco, so we could help an 18-year-old Maui girl win the competition.

So, on the issue of our time, education, I hope people will phone or e-mail the House Education Committee chairman, Rep. Roy Takumi (586-6170, FAX 586-6171, or e-mail reptakumi@capitol.hawaii.gov). Tell him your opinion on whether Hawai'i should have seven local school boards — one new board for Maui, Hawai'i and Kaua'i, and the four districts on O'ahu — or keep the current 14-member Board of Education we have that meets almost exclusively here on O'ahu and oversees from downtown Honolulu all 286 public schools.

Takumi's committee is set for decision-making at 1:30 p.m. today in the state Capitol Auditorium. Testimony has been previously accepted, and only decision-making will take place.

There is some widespread agreement that the current BOE doesn't work when it comes to improving student achievement. Now an audit has shown that one of the primary reasons is that the BOE has failed to ensure that the superintendent of schools is monitoring principals' implementation of rigorous curriculum — particularly at some of the more challenged schools and, probably, to some degree at all public schools.

Here's why our kids can't answer the test questions: (1) the test question is linked back to a (2) textbook chapter, which is linked back to a (3) curriculum item, which is linked back to the (4) state standard. However, when the curriculum is missing, the system doesn't work.

Sadly, Hawai'i doesn't have a curriculum guideline, and most principals don't ensure that one exists. Two high-poverty-school principals adopted the rigorous Core Knowledge curriculum, which along with the Direct Instruction reading program, allowed these two curriculum-based instruction schools to become the only two such schools out of a 100 or so to show annual yearly progress four years in a row.

The BOE only learned about this in the papers, for the BOE is not ensuring that the superintendent of schools is ensuring that the principals are ensuring that the teachers are ensuring that the students are reviewing and understanding all the materials required by the standards.

For a decade, the BOE has idly watched as Hawai'i student performance scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress have remained flat, and at or near the bottom in state-by-state comparisons. Rigorous curriculum was the key to change, says the audit, along with much-needed monitoring by parents, teachers, principals and the superintendent of schools.

The real question is: Do the kids have a chance if the current BOE is not ensuring that rigorous curriculums are being put in place? Or, would seven local BOEs do a better job?

You make the call.

Then, please make the call to Rep. Takumi or to the Senate Education chairman, Sen. Norman Sakamoto (586-8585, FAX 586-8588 or e-mail sensakamoto@capitol.hawaii.gov). House Bill 2332 would let voters decide if they would like to change the Constitution to eliminate the current BOE and substitute with local boards.