projects ...

P-20

Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education is a statewide partnership led by the Good Beginnings Alliance, the Hawaii State Department of Education, and the University of Hawaii system that is working to strengthen the education pipeline from early childhood through higher education so that all students achieve career and college success. P-20 partners share a sense of urgency about the need to improve Hawaii's educational outcomes in an increasingly global economy. The goal of Hawaii P-20 is for 55% of Hawaii's working age adults to have a 2- or 4-year college degree by the year 2025.

Hawaii P-20 seeks to achieve this by:

  • Having all children reading at grade level by third grade;
  • Strengthening the rigor of the high school curriculum;
  • Increasing student access and success in college; and,
  • Facilitating program and policy development based upon research and data.

Teach for America

Teach For America (TFA) aims to end educational inequity - the reality that in our country where a child is born determines his or her educational outcomes and, in turn, life prospects. Their mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders. The vision is that one day all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. TFA recruits outstanding recent college graduates of all majors and career interests and working professionals to commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools. TFA invests heavily in the training and professional development necessary to ensure their success as teachers in our highest-poverty communities.

During their two-year commitments, corps members see firsthand that educational inequity is a problem we can solve and gain a grounded understanding of how to solve it. As alumni, they bring strong leadership to every level of the school system and across all fields, work to minimize the extra challenges facing children growing up in low income communities, build the capacity of schools and school systems, and change the prevailing ideology through their examples and advocacy.

Kamehameha Schools

The Literacy Instruction and Support division (LIS) extends the reach of Kamehameha Schools into Hawaiian communities by providing culturally relevant learning experiences that develop the literacy (writing & art, speaking, and reading) skills of Hawaiian children in grades K-3 attending selected DOE schools and providing literacy support to parents and caregivers.

The Literacy Instruction and Support division (LIS) provides three programs that enhance literacy among Native Hawaiian children in grades K-3 attending Department of Education (DOE) schools. In the In School Literacy writing program, LIS teachers and tutoring specialists collaborate with DOE teachers to share the responsibility of increased student literacy learning and achievement. Instruction in the writing process, writing/reading connections and writing/art integration is provided keeping multiple learning styles of Hawaiian students in mind. Ïke Hawaiÿi is the philosophical foundation that guides curriculum development and instruction of Hawaiian culturally based program. In addition to the In School Literacy writing program, LIS offers an After School Literacy program, which focuses on cultural and science learning through writing, reading and interactive projects. A Literacy Parenting/Caregiver program is also offered to support literacy learning at home.

Academy 21 of the Hawaiian Educational Council (HEC)

In 2004, the Hawaii State Legislature passed Act 51 to support the reinvention of public education statewide. In this environment, Hawaii DOE Superintendent, the Hawaiian Educational Council and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation collaborated to create the Hawaii Change Leaders Project (HCLP). The Project drew on the expertise of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (CLG), which received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to pioneer new approaches to developing educators’ skills as change leaders.  Together with the policy opportunities afforded by Act 51, the momentum and enthusiasm created by the DOE and HEC led to support from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation for a one-year program design grant beginning in the summer of 2005. HEC and CLG partnered with the project’s first cohort, which was composed of the principals, school renewal specialist (SRS), and complex area superintendent (CAS) of the South Kona (Konawaena) Complex on the Big Island of Hawaii. Now working with its 4th cohort, HCLP is showing promising results. At the heart of the program’s design were three innovative elements:

  • Content focused on the core competencies of change leadership;
  • Practice-embedded delivery through leadership practice communities; and,
  • Changes in local policy and management practice to support change leadership.

Today, HCLG has evolved into Academy 21 with six (6) cohorts serving over 120 schools across the state.

New Teacher Center

The New Teacher Center at University of California at Santa Cruz (NTC) is a national resource center focused on teacher and administrator induction. America’s schools are now welcoming record numbers of new educators. Typically, the newest teachers are placed in the most difficult classes in the neediest schools. Not surprisingly, many of their educational careers will not survive this trial by fire. In contrast, the New Teacher Center (NTC) has a demonstrable record of achievement, with long-term new teacher retention rates as high as 95%, compared to a nationwide dropout rate of nearly 50%.

The NTC’s unique induction model helps novice educators maintain a strategic focus on student learning and classroom instruction with the guidance of highly trained and supported mentors. The NTC works with new and veteran educators, researchers, and policy makers to support the development of strong induction models by providing resources and programs that address effective mentoring and supervision practices, issues of equity, using student data to improve instruction, and strategies for meeting the needs of English Language Learners.

The New Teacher Project

The New Teacher Project (TNTP) is a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap by ensuring that high-need students get outstanding teachers. Founded by teachers in 1997, TNTP partners with school districts and states to implement scalable responses to their most acute teacher quality challenges. Since its inception, TNTP has trained or hired approximately 33,000 teachers, benefiting an estimated 4.8 million students nationwide. It has established more than 70 programs and initiatives in 28 states and published three seminal studies on urban teacher hiring and school staffing.

Principal Leadership Academy (PLA)

The PLA has become the professional development arm for the Hawaii Change Leadership Project to help school leaders transform their competencies, cultures and conditions. PLA conducted 20 sessions with 55 principals and 110 vice principals.

The PLA "introduces" principals to theories and strategies of Change Leadership statewide. To quote the Change Leadership Group, "the successful leadership of transformational improvement processes in schools and districts requires sharpening capacities in two quite different directions at the same time:

  • Leaders need to see more deeply into WHY it is so hard for organizations to change, even when there is a genuine, collective desire to do so. Leaders need to take action effectively to help the organization actually become what they need and want to be.
  • Leaders need to see more deeply into WHY it is so hard for individuals to change, even when individuals genuinely intend to do so. Leaders need to learn how to take action effectively to help ourselves become the people we need and want to be in order to better serve the children and families of communities."

In 2009, PLA merged with Academy 21.