OUR SCHOOLS • HO'OKENA ELEMENTARY AND INTERMEDIATE
Kona children 'take ownership of their learning'
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HO'OKENA, Hawai'i — Po'okela Nullar, 9, is writing for himself.
True, the paper he is focused on at an oversized desk in his fourth-grade classroom at Ho'okena Elementary and Intermediate School is schoolwork, and it might be graded. But for Po'okela, that's not the point.
Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser
He is determined to get down on paper his account of a recent outing riding dirt bikes and a motorized quad with his Uncle Paul and Uncle Kahi. When he's finished, Po'okela plans to hang it on his wall, capturing the memory.
Fourth-grader Po'okela Nullar writes about a recent outing he enjoyed with his uncles. He got to choose this project as part of a largely self-directed curriculum known as America's Choice School Design.
He chose this task as part of a largely self-directed curriculum at Ho'okena known as America's Choice School Design. Staff at the school say that over the past five years, the new America's Choice approach has led to a big boost in skill levels and confidence among Ho'okena students.
Ann Inaba, Po'okela's teacher and an 18-year veteran of the classroom, admits she was skeptical at first. Instead of the structured, teach-from-the-book approach that Inaba had practiced for years, America's Choice invites children to help decide which tasks they will take on, and when.
Teachers closely monitor the youngsters' progress, and offer tutoring to those who are struggling.
"I wouldn't change back," Inaba said, looking over a classroom of pupils plugging away at writing tasks in small groups. "They take ownership of their learning because this is what they want."
Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Now, I have higher expectations," she said.
Lyndia Uchimura hopes to repeat the "adequate yearly progress" mark under the federal No Child Left Behind Act that the school reached last year.
Ho'okena is a rural Kona school 20 miles south of Kailua, with some students bused or driven 25 miles each way, each day. More than two-thirds of them qualify for free or reduced lunches, a common measure of poverty, and for years Ho'okena struggled to meet its educational goals.
Twenty of its 28 classrooms are in old plantation-era buildings or portables.
The school bell is broken, so students were summoned from recess recently by a pupil ringing an old-fashioned clanger.
Yet last year Ho'okena achieved the "adequate yearly progress" mark under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and principal Lyndia Uchimura hopes to repeat that performance this year, pulling Ho'okena out of "corrective action" status.
Uchimura said that much of the credit belongs to former principal Mary Correa, who proposed America's Choice as a compromise when the school staff split in 1998 over which reform design to adopt.
"The teachers here, they really looked in the mirror, and they looked at the student achievement at that time, and there were no excuses anymore," Uchimura said. "It couldn't be because of the families, it couldn't be because of the kids. It was this school's decision to do something about it."
• What are you most proud of? Staff and students and the standards-based instruction and learning at the school, said Uchimura.
• Best-kept secret: A select few know about the great avocados grown on our campus.
• Everybody at our school knows: Uncle Shane, our head custodian.
• Our biggest challenge: Our ability to recruit part-time tutors and educational assistants who meet NCLB requirements and are willing to travel to our school is a big challenge.
Our second challenge this year is providing transition for our grades 5-8 students and bidding aloha to staff as we downsize to pre-K to grade 5 next year.
• What we need: A playground with equipment.
• Special events: Learner's Showcase, quarterly awards assemblies, Read With Me, Math Night, Thursday parent coffee hours, Ho'olaule'a, May Day, among others.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
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| Ho'okena will downsize to elementary grades only next year
• Where: 86-4355 Mamalahoa Highway, Captain Cook, HI 96704 • Phone: 328-2710 • Principal: Lyndia Uchimura, for almost two years • School nickname: Ho'okena Ali'i • School colors: Red and yellow • Web address: www.hookena.k12.hi.us • History: In the early 1900s, a three-classroom structure was built on the present property. Three teachers taught a total of 60 pupils in Grades 1-6. The present classrooms/cafeteria building was constructed in 1930. Student enrollment gradually declined in the late '60s, so two neighboring schools were consolidated with Ho'okena. The first permanent eight-classroom building was completed in 1999. Ho'okena Elementary and Intermediate, now Pre-K to Grade 8, will downsize during the next school year (2004-05) to become an elementary school encompassing Pre-K to Grade 5. Students in Grades 6-8 will attend Konawaena Middle School next school year. • Testing: Here's how Ho'okena Elementary and Intermediate students fared on the most recent standardized tests. Stanford Achievement Test: Listed is the combined percentage of students scoring average or above average, compared with the national combined average of 77 percent. Third-grade reading, 74.3 percent; math, 81.8 percent. Fifth-grade reading, 76.3 percent; math, 78.2 percent. Eighth-grade reading, 75.9 percent; math, 58.6 percent. Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards: Listed is the combined percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards, and a comparison with the state average. Third-grade reading, 63.2 percent, compared with the state average of 41.9 percent; math, 57.9 percent, compared with the state average of 24.1 percent. Fifth-grade reading, 57.1 percent, compared with the state average of 40.8 percent; math, 40 percent, compared with the state average of 19.6 percent. Eighth-grade reading, 26.7 percent, compared with the state average of 37.2 percent; math, 13.3 percent, compared with the state average of 15.7 percent. • Enrollment: 252 students, sufficient classrooms. • Computers: 28 computers in the multi-media lab, 26 computers (older Macintoshes) in the publishing lab, five computers (many are older Macs) per classroom. |
