Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 8, 1 August 2016 — EDUCATING KEIKI, BUILDING --Ipo Tario-Kauh COMMUNITY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDUCATING KEIKI,

BUILDING --Ipo Tario-Kauh COMMUNITY

Homestead community benefits from Hawaiianfocused chartactiool ^ f * *Jk ~tt~- ] «kiM * |T A . 'ILi^ , L i /HH

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ln the earl.y 2QQ0s, Hawai'i's new public charter schools faced a number of startup challenges such as inadequate fundm, makeshift facilities and a need to prove that they could teach students as effectively as traditional schools.

Today, many of the first charter schools have found their footing, including 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools that are using traditional knowledge andpractices to help today's students address contemporary issues. Eaeh of the 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools is unique but they share a eommon goal of offering education that reflects Hawaiian values, cultures and practices while preparing a new generation of students to heeome contributing members of their communities. What that might look like depends on the school. Some schools offer vocational programs that integrate traditional wisdom and sustainable practices to prepare students for life beyond high school, whether their paths lead to college or careers. Many also embrace the concept of aloha 'āina, helping students develop a deeper connection with the land and their culture through place-based lessons such as cleaning streams, removing invasive species and planting native gardens, tending lo'i or learning traditional navigation skills in an educational voyaging eanoe. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been a staunch supporter of Hawaiian-focused charter schools. Since 2010, OHA has awarded $7.5 million in grants to Nā Lei Na'auao - Native Hawaiian Charter School Allianee to help schools meet the needs of an increasing number of

students. "Our support for Hawaiian-focused charter schools is one of the best investments we ean make in our children's future," said OHA Chairperson Robert K. Lindsey Jr. "We are extremely encouraged by the efforts of Hawaiian-focused charter schools, whieh are contributing to an environment where our children have an opportunity to thrive." Kamehameha Schools has also rallied behind Hawaiian-focused charter schools, whieh reach many Hawaiian children beyond Kamehameha's three campuses, 30 preschools, and other community-focused programs. Kamehameha provides about $1,500 per student to these schools, totaling roughly $6 million annually. OHA's and Kamehameha Schools' funding helps to offset the differenee between what the State Department of Education offers students in its standard schools and what it provides the puhlie charter schools, whieh were intended to give parents and learners a richer set of puhlie education options. "Lor the past 15 years, Kamehameha's support of Hawaiian-focused charter schools has created a greater understanding of the importance of charter schools and the need for collaborative and collective efforts to build a thriving Lāhui through Hawaiian culture-based education,"

MO'OLELO NUI C0VER FEATURE

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Hawaiian culture and values are an important part of the curriculum at Kanuikapono Charter School, whieh serves many students from the Anahola Homestead on Kaua'i,- Photo: Courtesy of Kanuikapono Charter School

FIRST UP: KANUIKAPONO CHARTER SCH00L ON KAUA'I n Anahola, a small public charter school has embarked on a big mission to elevate Hawaiian instruction in a manner that resonates throughout the community. In addition to recruiting highly qualified teachers, Kanuikapono Charter School also taps cultural practitioners, kalo farmers and others in the community who perpetuate 'ike kūpuna to share ancestral knowledge with the students. After spending 15 years of building relationships, the school now in position to help usher in a community-wide renewal while demonstrating that grades and test scores aren't the only measuring sticks for success. "There's so mueh more to Hawaiian education," says Head of School Ipo Torio-Kauhane. "How are we taking care of the families? How are students contributing to the community? The feeling of 'ohana is really important to us. Relationships are really important to us." Kanuikapono, a Hawaiian-focused charter school, has 204 students, almost four times the enrollment it had when it first opened in 2002. Now the largest charter school on Kaua'i, it serves students from kindergarten through high school, nearly half coming fromthe Anahola Homesteadand 65 to 75 percent of Hawaiian descent.The school also draws families who have recently returned to Hawai'i and want to learn more or reconnect with the culture. Parents are also able to participate in the learning. "Being a charter, we've been able to incorporate that into the curriculum. It's an accepted and understood thing for parents to be able to attend classes with their children," says Goveming Board Chair Puna Kalama Dawson. "They're encouraged to participate at a high level and I'm very proud that we have parents that do

make the time." One of the school's biggest draws is its Hawaiian focus. "They're here for the culture. They're here because they want to know more about Hawai'i's people, Hawai'i's traditions and practices and they want to heeome perpetuators and practitioners of all things Hawaiian," says Torio-Kauhane. Striving to create a school without walls, lessons are often taught in the forest or in the oeean to create an authentic environment. "We bring in the kumu so our children and families are exposed to the source as mueh as possible because there are so few left," Torio-Kauhane says. "That's one of the main things that makes

looking forward to increasing that by developing a Hawaiian-focused curriculum and corresponding assessments. Like other schools chartered in the early 2000s, Kanuikapono struggled to find a permanent campus with adequate classrooms, but now has achieved stability with a beautiful campus, highly qualified teachers, immense community and parent support, as well as funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kamehameha Schools and the Department of Education. "We're really poised now to dig deep and be more innovative," says Torio-Kauhane. Some plans include making math, language arts and science classes more project-based and aimed at perpetuating cultural

traamons, sucn as la au lapa au. OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna, a former program director and math and science teacher at Kanuikapono, points out that traditional puhlie schools have trouble trying to step outside the box, but charter schools have more flexibility. At Kanuikapono, "They provide kids with a whole new bag of experiences," he says. "For me, in order to develop creative minds and creative thinkers, it has to do with the experiences that the students have. I truly believe one of the greatest strengths to their school is the arts and how they meet with community leaders and actually have project-based units on things like water management with all these different people in the community." At the high school level, five vocational courses are offered, all geared around sustainability: design-build, culinary arts, oeean safety, landscaping and ecotourism. "It gives them an opportunity to give back to the community, taking their needs

and turning them into opportunities to learn," said Torio-Kauhane. Culinary arts students feed the entire high school on Fridays. Design-build students construct items that benefit the campus, from tables to a water catchment system. "They either save the school money or make the school money while they're learning real world skills and gaining vocational experience using culture as a foundation as mueh as possible," said Torio-Kauhane. "We're really excited to watch this program grow and we want to bring in more eommunity members and more businesses." ■

Kanuikapono so special." As a puhlie charter school, Kanuikapono is held to the same academic standards and expectations as all puhlie schools in Hawai'i and the school has earned Western Association of Schools and Colleges, or WASC, accreditation through 2021. More that half the instruction is taught through a Hawaiian lens and Torio-Kauhane is

said Kamehameha Schools CEO Jack Wong. "Today, we look forward to supporting the efforts of the Hawaiian education community to expand the circle of eollaboration to include Hawaiian language and culture-based schools spanning preschool through the university system so that we all ean help develop 'ōpio with foundations that are rooted in Hawaiian culture, 'ohana and Hawai'i," he added. In the coming months, Ka Wai Ola will be shining a spot- ■ ■ -i)1 light on Hawaiian-focused schools — charter schools, Aha j|V Pūnana Leo preschools, the DOE's Ka Papahana Kaiapuni immersion programs, Kamehameha and UH — with an occasional series looking at the different strategies individual schools are employing to empower a new generation of 'ōpio, the future of our lāhui.

e culture. They re here because v more about Hawai'i s people, ditions and practices and they nt to heeome perpetuators and itioners of all things Hawaiian." ine, Head of Kanuikapono Charter School

Education leaders supporting 'ōlelo Hawai'i, Hawaiian culture, and 'āina based education met to expand eollahorations aimed at building a thriving lāhui and vibrant pae 'āina. - Photos: Courtesyof Kula Hawai'i Network

Dr. Lisa Watkins— Victorino, OHA Research Director, adds her mana'o to one of a dozen potential areas of focus.

Photo: Courtesy of Kanuikapono Charter School