THE GARDEN ISLAND Editor’s note: This is the third in a four-part series on The Hawai‘i P-20 Initiative, a revolutionary approach to education for children from birth to post-college. Part I discussed early education and kindergarten preparedness for children under
THE GARDEN ISLAND
Editor’s note: This is the third in a four-part series on The Hawai‘i P-20 Initiative, a revolutionary approach to education for children from birth to post-college. Part I discussed early education and kindergarten preparedness for children under the age of 5. Part II addressed the Department of Education’s efforts to prepare disabled children for school. Part III skips ahead to adolescence. Part Two
Even if a child is adequately prepared for elementary school, sometimes the most difficult transition in a student’s life comes later, during and immediately after high school. Whether it’s the social angst of awkward development, the introduction of hormones or the shift in extra-curricular interests from Legos and Little League to alcohol and the opposite sex, high school and the assimilation to college present an entirely new set of obstacles.
Kaua‘i Community College is working to address the entire age range on the educational spectrum.
A 2004 report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education shows that Hawai‘i ranks below the national average in the status of its educational pipeline. Out of 100 ninth graders in Hawai‘i, only 65 graduate from high school on time, 34 enter college, 22 return to their second year of college and 12 complete higher education on time.
Kaua‘i Community College chancellor Peggy Cha said the P-20 Initiative reflects, formalizes, gives direction and recognizes the number of things that have been going on for some time.
“With P-20, you are literally talking from preschool through graduate school,” she said. “As a university center, that’s very much what Kaua‘i Community College represents.”
KCC has a complimentary early childhood education program.
“We are committed to and very involved in preparing teachers for preschool,” Cha said, adding that KCC graduates are well represented among teachers and directors of preschools around the island.
The Hawaiian Immersion preschool is located on the grounds of KCC.
“We work with a number of different kinds of programs (that address) the middle school through high school,” Cha said.
She gave as an example the work they have done in Anahola. The community identified classes and services they wanted. Looking at models on Moloka‘i and Lana‘i, they discovered facilities built in Hawaiian Homes communities that made services available for which, normally, community members would have to travel a distance to receive. A Housing and Urban Development grant through the Office of University Programs helped build an ‘ohana education center in Anahola that could be used by any number of agencies to provide services.
One such program held in the center is an after-school tutoring program targeting middle school students in reading and math, funded through an OHA grant. Another program is the Competency Based Diploma program presented through partnering with the DOE and Kamehameha Schools.
“A number of different agencies bring classes and services to the center,” Cha said.
They are now in the process of turning over the administration of the center to a Ka Halepono advisory board. This will involve getting tax exempt status and building the capacity of the board to handle the administration and management of the building, Cha said.
KCC is also the site for Na Pua No‘eau, a program for gifted and talented native Hawaiian youth run by UH-Hilo. KCC supports the program by providing the space. The Super Saturday program provides enrichment with an emphasis on science, technology and math.
KCC also offers the Future Flight program, which has included an afternoon robotics class this summer.
The community college is working closely with the high schools on developing academies. Cha sits on the board of Kaua‘i High School’s Academy for Hospitality and Tourism. High school students are able to shadow and work with KCC faculty in culinary arts and hospitality and tourism to see what’s going on.
Cha said they also have a good relationship with Waimea High School’s culinary academy.
KCC is getting ready to launch a construction academy in the spring of 2007, backed by legislative funding, the governor and the construction industry.
“You hear all the time about the tremendous need for people to go into the construction industry,” Cha said.
The academy requires close coordination and cooperation between KCC and the high schools. Two KCC faculty members will be stationed in the high school to teach the curriculum. One KCC faculty member will prove traveling support and curricular coordination.
The construction curriculum has been piloted by Honolulu Community College and has been aligned with state standards.
“This is one of the few sets of career and technical programs that will provide dual credit,” Cha said.
Kaua‘i and Waimea high schools will be the two schools involved. Cha said they hope to invite Kapa‘a High School once the programs become established and more funds become available.
Departments and individuals have done outreach, Cha said.
Francis Takahashi from the electronics department participates in the Women in Technology summer internship program. Cha said last summer the female students built computers, which they then gave to their respective schools.
“It was a powerful experience,” Cha said, adding that a number of girls have enrolled in KCC’s electronics program.
Brian Yamamoto was one of the founders of a program partnering with the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. The NTBG offers a national program to improve science instruction. Slots are reserved for Kaua‘i teachers and they have the rich resources of the NTBG available to them. They help teachers develop curriculum using tropical biology and botany.
Cha said in his botany classes, Yamamoto has quietly been cultivating native Hawaiian plants with tissue culture. His goal is to give a set of materials to every school so they can have their own set of native Hawaiian plans they can use for science or any other projects.
The Running Start program partnership between the DOE and UH was established by Act 236 in 2000. The program allows students to take a course at KCC and get high school and college credit. Cha said it has been a system effort to align courses with the DOE. She said there is a long list of courses available for dual credit.
Cha said the number of students under 18 taking courses at KCC has grown significantly. In the fall of 2000, 41 students were enrolled; in the fall of 2004, 84 students were enrolled.
Funding through the university’s gear-up program has allowed KCC to offer a parents’ night. The open house gives students and parents an opportunity to be introduced to the college. They can meet with counselors, talk with representatives from all of the different programs and find out about financial aid and the COMPASS placement test.
“It’s an opportunity for parents and students to find out the breadth of opportunities available here,” Cha said.
According to Cha, the fall registration is slightly over 1000. Enrollment has gone down over the past couple of years, a sign of a good economy. When employment is high, enrollment drops.
“[It] always happens at community colleges,” Cha said.
Eighty-five percent or more of the students work and it is difficult to have a full-time job and attend school, she said.
About half of all entering students are new students; the other half are non-traditional students, Cha said, with an average age of 27, and a median age of 21. This means that there is a large block of students in the traditional college age. There is another large block of students between 26 and 45 years of age.
“These students have been out of school for a while, working,” she said. “They have solidified their career ideas and now know what kind of post secondary courses they need for the careers they want.”
The challenge is to support these working adults who are juggling families, jobs, and education. Some of the supports are scheduling night classes, encouraging distance education, listing courses from any campus in the system in KCC’s schedule. In addition, the library and Learning Center are open in the evenings and on weekends.
• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
