KAILUA-KONA — The Department of Education plans to release its final strategic plan update for Hawaii public schools on Nov. 30 before bringing it before the Board of Education for approval on Dec. 6.
The plan is designed to guide the department in how best it can create successful learning opportunities for the state’s students.
It’s built on three primary goals for the department: student success, staff success and “successful systems of support.”
All of those goals include core objectives for public schools, including concepts like student empowerment and ensuring students receive a well-rounded education.
Over the last several months, DOE representatives have been traveling from island to island to gather feedback about the department’s proposed strategic plan.
“The listening tour emphasized the need to foster community partnerships, which rose to the top in the plan,” said Donalyn Dela Cruz, director of communications and community affairs for the Department of Education. “All of the issues that were brought up as community challenges and issues affecting students and their families in the report also drove us to anchor the plan in excellence and equity.”
One big takeaway from these community sessions was how communities define student success.
Examples, she said, included not just preparation for life after high schools and the demonstration of strong academic skills, but also a discovery and pursuit of passions and a “strong sense of cultural understanding and appreciation for Hawaii.”
That listening tour also presented several opportunities to revise the drafted plan before its presentation to the board.
As one example, Dela Cruz said the department incorporated the concept that college is “one pathway to a career.”
That idea came up several times in a report the department created summarizing the feedback it gathered during its public comment period.
According to that report, 69 percent of the 115 respondents agreed that college and career preparation should be integrated in some ways, and that “college is one pathway to certain careers.”
“We should be preparing our students for their careers or the careers they hope to have,” read one response included in the summary.
Another revision Dela Cruz identified was to incorporate “celebration of the teaching profession” as a way to “change the culture around teaching.”
More details about the process and incorporated changes will be discussed at the meeting before the board, she said.
The plan’s strength is its approach to keeping students at the center, Dela Cruz said.
“The Strategic Plan is anchored to the primary goal of student success,” she said. “We focused on building upon this foundation to achieve equity and excellence for all students.”
The plan is also meant to allow for flexibility in how the state’s schools develop their own plans.
“Schools, classrooms, complex areas and communities also have diverse perspectives about how to define and measure success,” said the draft plan.
DOE schools will develop their academic and financial plans “based on the strengths and needs of their students and community,” said the draft. Those plans are then reviewed by the school community council and then approved by the complex area’s superintendent.
Each charter school’s plan must be adopted by its respective governing board within the context of its performance contract, which is approved by the state’s Public Charter School Commission.