HILO — Hawaii public schools will operate starting next year under an updated Strategic Plan, a multi-year document outlining goals to help more students succeed.
Members of the state Board of Education approved the updated version on Tuesday and added several amendments of their own. The new plan, touted by the state Department of Education as being more “student centered,” will take effect starting in the fall for 2017-20. It was last updated in 2012.
Notable changes include (according to a DOE news release):
— Student success is now the “foremost focus.”
— The updated plan has a commitment to closing “opportunity and achievement gaps.”
— The plan also contains a “shared direction for public education” but with “flexibility in implementation” given the state’s “diverse communities.”
– The plan has a “focused set of statewide indicators” to better track progress, all with three-year targets.
DOE Superintendent of Education Kathryn Matayoshi lauded the plan as putting “Hawaii’s public school students … at the heart.” The new plan takes effect as Hawaii implements the Every Student Succeeds Act, a new federal education law replacing No Child Left Behind. The state is also drafting a plan to implement ESSA.
BOE Vice Chairman Brian De Lima, who resides on Hawaii Island, proposed an amendment Tuesday which calls schools to make the needs of struggling students the “highest priority” and calls for schools to match their “most vulnerable students … with highly qualified teacher(s).”
Schools “should not foster a culture of testing beyond what is required,” De Lima’s amendment continues, and schools should “remain vigilant” in reducing chronic absenteeism. De Lima said the new chronic absenteeism goal statewide should be reduced from 13 percent — the national average — to 9 percent, which is what’s needed to reduce the achievement gap.
De Lima’s amendment was approved, along with others including one which inserts verbiage to recognize “both of Hawaii’s official languages” and verbiage highlighting the importance of multiculturalism and multilingualism.
“There will be challenges (in implementing the plan),” De Lima said at the meeting. “But we must not lose vision that we’re doing all this to improve student achievement in our schools, especially for students who are struggling.”
The full plan can be found at: tinyurl.com/HawaiiStrategicPlan.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.