Posted on: Tuesday, March 9, 2004
ISLAND VOICES
Understanding our 'broken' schools
By Joseph Theroux
Principal of Keaukaha Elementary School in Hilo, Hawai'i
Dear Gov. Lingle:
I am a principal at a small public elementary school on the Big Island. We serve a large population of Hawaiian students, are situated on Hawaiian Home Lands. Over the years we have been labeled "an under-performing school," "a corrective action school," "a status school" and, currently, "a school undergoing restructuring."
A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers audit listed our many flaws and suggested many recommendations.
You yourself have painted many schools across the state of Hawai'i with a broad brush when you stated, "Our schools are broken." Yet you have never visited my school. You have never met my staff. You don't know my 255 children. The vast majority of them are poor — economically disadvantaged, we say nowadays — and Hawaiian, though there is a sprinkling of haole, Japanese and Guamanian children.
I tell people that they remind me of the Samoan children I taught 25 years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer. They are a bright, handsome, respectful lot. Many are barefoot; they prefer to kick a football unshod. They come to us speaking pidgin, and we instituted a program called Reading Mastery two years ago. Data suggest it's working.
We teach our students math, reading, science, social studies and computer literacy. We have hired part-time teachers for art, PE and Hawaiian studies. Two former teachers volunteer their time each year to teach 'ukulele to our third-graders. They have identified several as musically gifted. Many teachers volunteer for regular Ohana Reading Nights to help encourage literacy.
On our own initiative, we offer an ongoing asthma clinic, monthly 'uku checks, and annual dental screenings. Last week, Kapi'olani Health gave a presentation on puberty to our fifth- and sixth-graders.
Last fall we had an outbreak of pinkeye. We sent out flyers and checked our students daily. One second-grade girl had an aggravated case. We could not contact home, so I drove her there. She lived in a section of King's Landing called Pu'u Maile, an area infested with drugs. People there live in shacks, structures not as well built as the most remote fales in Samoa.
She told me to stop where there were no houses, only rusted autos. Two women emerged from a beat-up Toyota Tercel. That was her home.
Last week several staff members met as an SST, a Student Support Team. We were joined by a surrogate parent, appointed by the courts. Several participants were absent: the father was in prison, the mother was in rehab, the guardian was unavailable, as were the social worker and the guardian ad litem. At the same time, many of the staff had stayed late to prepare lessons, or help in the homework center for the older students, or in the Kahi 'Ohana center to help the younger ones with study skills and reading.
When the PricewaterhouseCoopers audit was published, some of my staff were nearly in tears. They felt that their careers — in some cases over 30 years at this school — were dismissed as meaningless because someone expressed the opinion that they had low expectations of our children.
Did you know that, like you, PricewaterhouseCoopers did not visit my school? They subcontracted UCLA to do the job, which in turn hired three graduate students (with no background in education) who — after a two-day visit — produced a 26-page report. It is full of inaccuracies. For instance, the first draft, touted by its authors as factual, described our preschool; in fact, we have no preschool.
On the days that the PWC audit was being conducted, we had a spate of bad weather, high winds and high seas. One of our families, who lived in a tent on the beach, was missing. The children were absent from school, and they were not checked in at the local homeless center.
Staff spent much of the day tracking them down. Canned goods and donations were collected for them. Of course we were also concerned about their missed school work, and teachers made up packets of work for them, though we knew it was a not a priority for them at the time.
No Child Left Behind is a wonderful notion. But targeting schools — threatening and finger-pointing and blame-passing for low test results on standardized tests — is not going to save the children in the tent on the beach or the girl in the Tercel.
We know what we have to do to improve curriculum, and we are doing it. We should reward our dedicated teachers who work in "status" schools, not criticize them. We should be reaching out to parents who have a mistrust of the system, not ignoring them.
We don't need more school boards, we need smaller classes. We don't need more money, we need to support the parents and the teachers so they can do their job. Not more money; show an interest. Visit us. Read a story. Demonstrate your interest.
Gov. Lingle, you have recently found time to visit Iraq, the White House and the New York Stock Exchange. Please begin visiting the schools across the state that you have condemned as "broken" or "mortally wounded" and see the wonderful things they are doing for our children.
