Promising Practices in the Pacific Region

Compiled by Stan Koki*

The Pacific region abounds with a wide range and variety of promising practices for the improvement of teaching and learning. This issue of Promising Practices in the Pacific Region provides a summary of some of the promising practices that have been identified and featured in Pacific Center Newsletters and other publications from the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory (PREL). The intent is to disseminate information to promote adoption or adaptation of these promising practices by Pacific educators to enhance student learning.

Career Academies
Because of widespread interest in School-to-Work Transition that attempts to bridge the gap between secondary and postsecondary education, the Career Academy concept is a particularly promising practice for consideration by schools in the Pacific. A Career Academy is a schoolwithin-a-school that offers academic programs organized around broad career themes. Classroom instruction is integrated with work-based learning to equip students with the necessary skills for both workforce entry and postsecondary admission. Staffed by a team of multi-disciplinary teachers, academy classes are block scheduled and smaller than those in the typical high school, enabling teachers to structure activities that build students’ sense of membership in the academy community.

Curricula are often planned with the assistance of business partners who suggest program structure, provide classroom speakers, host school field trips, or provide mentors for students. Community-service projects, or part-time and summer work experiences, are an integral part of the academy experience.

Currently, the Teacher Academy being implemented at Marianas High School in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), with an emerging partnership with the Northern Marianas College of Education on the mentoring of students in the program, is yet another expression of interest in the academy concept in the Pacific region.

In this issue of Promising Practices in the Pacific, two successful career academies from among the eight career academies being implemented in seven schools in Hawaii are spotlighted. McKinley High School Academy of Finance and Farrington High School Health Academy provide students with exciting and relevant academic and vocational experiences. Two academies are connected respectively with finance and health, two industries that are of critical importance in the state of Hawaii as well as for the entire Pacific region, and have potential for productive partnerships. PREL hopes that these promising practices will serve as both inspiration and a catalyst for change, growth, and improvement of School-to-Work Transition opportunities in the Pacific region.

McKinley High School Academy of Finance
When considering the increasing role of Asia and the Pacific in the global economy, the mid-ocean location of Hawaii can be seen as an advantage. To the business world, the islands are no longer viewed as a remote, laid-back vacationers’ dream of palm trees, beaches and mai-tais. While there is ample reason for the visitor industry to promote that image, the financial industry sees the geographic position of the islands as a bridge between time zones and a way to provide for the 24-hour demands of contemporary international financing. The Hawaii Business Roundtable has recognized this alternate view of the state and categorized financial services as a growth industry, one which will generate business development and expansion which, in turn, will create new jobs.

The Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) also recognized the potential of the finance industry in the state and was determined to prepare local students with the skills and knowledge to take advantage of the multiple opportunities offered by the growing financial sector. The DOE not only recognized the potential for new jobs, but also the incredible resource that Hawaii’s students present to the finance industry. Hawaii’s cultural diversity is such that in any classroom one finds students who combine the languages and cultures of Asia and the Pacific from an American perspective. The concept of an Academy of Finance was a propitious joining of an economic trend to the cultural strengths of local students. By providing students with the academic background to add to their linguistic and cultural knowledge, the Academy of Finance can prepare students for meaningful, productive and well-paying jobs into the Twenty-First Century.

McKinley High School, located in urban Honolulu near the financial district, initiated a business learning center several years ago and, therefore, was chosen as the site for the Academy of Finance. The Academy has been configured by borrowing from school-within-a-school models as well as from current conceptualizations in School-to-Work designs. The academic program at the Academy of Finance is aligned with the DOE’s content and performance standards so that in addition to finance/business courses, students in the program must meet the same high performance standards for graduation as regular students.

Academy of Finance students select a career major no later than 11th grade and participate in a paid work experience during the summer of their junior year. Community representatives cite the many advantages to students working in corporate businesses, and students themselves find the experience an eye opener to the demands, expectations and opportunities of the business world. The business community also supports the Academy of Finance by contributing financial resources and facilitating field trips to learning sites. Additional field trips to colleges are arranged, and some seniors take advantage of the chance to take a college course at Hawaii Pacific University (HPU). The Academy also provides career counseling to help graduates find employment, continue their education, or get additional training. Within the Academy framework, then, students have opportunities for career exploration which enables them to make informed choices concerning job search and further education options to career fulfillment.

McKinley students participating in the program express satisfaction. The students note that they have developed strong social and emotional bonds due to the extra time spent together at the Academy of Finance. They learn to be more caring, tolerant and supportive of their classmates. Promoting personal growth, academic success and solid employment prospects are objectives that any educational endeavor would be proud to achieve for its students. The McKinley Academy of Finance has already demonstrated that these objectives are obtainable. For additional information concerning the Academy, contact:

Nora Whitford, Director
McKinley Academy of Finance
McKinley High School
1039 S. King St.
Honolulu, HI 96814

Farrington High School Health Academy
The purpose of the Farrington High School Health Academy is to prepare students for jobs in health occupations and/or further schooling in the health field. Learning at the Health Academy is through a three-year school-within-a-school program.

Students begin in their sophomore year by enrolling in English, social studies, math and science classes that are integrated with courses in Health Occupation. Teachers work as an interdisciplinary team representing the core academic and health courses. Teachers are responsible for working with health professionals, Department of Education, community college and university specialists to develop a curriculum that integrates the various academic subjects with vocational content and materials.

Integrated curriculum has proven to be particularly effective in motivating students. The way in which the Academy treats the traditionally academic subject of economics provides an interesting example of curricular integration. As a vehicle for studying economics, students in the Health Academy examine the topic of aging from an economic perspective. Questions explored include what it means to live on a fixed income, how Medicare and Medicaid operate, and what financial impact occurs to families who need long-term care for an elderly family member. In this way, students develop a sophisticated grasp of consumer economics as well as gain further information about the health field. Academic expectations are higher than at traditional high schools, yet the Health Academy has found that the students are able to rise to the challenge. The supportive faculty gives students individual attention through the formal academic monitoring and counseling program. It has been found that the arduous work in the classroom and heavier workload are manageable because courses relate to each other and the health field.

Local health care facilities like the Queen’s Medical Center, Kuakini Medical Center, Kaiser’s Malama Ohana, Oahu Care and St. Francis Hospital have been very supportive of the Academy and its students. Through the cooperation of the health industry, students explore a variety of health care institutions during their first year in the program and visit a variety of postsecondary programs related to the field as well. Thus, students have the opportunity to survey both career options and further academic opportunities. During their second year in the program, students are placed with individual mentors in health facilities. They are provided with guided experiences in facilities that specialize in acute care, long-term care, home care and/or community health. During their third year in the Academy, students are placed in actual job situations. Some students are paid through internship arrangements, some receive stipends through Americorps and others engage in unpaid volunteer work. For several of the Academy graduates, this work experience proved to be the entree for hire directly upon completion of their studies.

An Academy Steering Committee sets goals and standards and advises the program. The committee’s responsibilities also include development and review of policies and continued collaborative support for the program. The Academy Steering Committee consists of the school principal, all 10 Academy teachers, representatives from the Health Care Industry, Department of Labor, Department of Health, Department of Education, Community College and the University of Hawaii.

Evaluations show that the Farrington Health Academy has helped to increase students’ self-confidence and assertiveness as well as improve students’ attitudes concerning lifelong learning and teamwork. Student perceptions concerning the personal qualities of effective health care professionals are also being positively impacted. Now in its sixth year, the Farrington Health Academy currently enrolls more than 140 students. For additional information concerning the Academy, contact:

Lillian Chang, Lead Teacher
Farrington Health Academy
Farrington High School
1564 N. King St.
Honolulu, HI 96817

Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT) in American Samoa
A team of QUILT trainers from American Samoa, in collaboration with PREL’s Pacific Center staff, continues to conduct a QUILT awareness program in American Samoa. Six teachers who have been thoroughly trained are now implementing the questioning strategies in their classrooms and are training other teachers in their schools in those strategies. Further, in 1996, approximately 300 elementary and junior high school teachers attended a three-day introductory and awareness building training session, which was a precursor to a series scheduled to start in 1997.

QUILT was developed by the Appalachian Educational Laboratory (AEL). It is a yearlong professional development program based on research on effective questioning. Teachers are encouraged to learn and use effective questioning techniques to help students learn, understand, and think about the world. The QUILT Model views questioning as a complex, dynamic process that is governed by teacher behavior at critical junctures. Fundamentally, the training guides teachers not to ask more questions, but better ones at times when questioning will encourage students to elaborate and give momentum to their own learning.

The acronym, QUILT, presents a culturally powerful and meaningful image in the context of Appalachia. Also, in terms of education, the care, skill and cooperation necessary to produce a quilt are analogous to the care, skill and cooperation necessary to produce an independent learner. That conceptualization was easily transferred to Samoan culture through the image of the finemat, the product of hand-crafted, careful and skillful pandanus weaving. It was found, too, that the format and presentation of QUILT training parallels the traditional Samoan learning style in which careful modeling and demonstration by the instructor interrelate with close observation and hands-on attempts by the learner. To put it another way, the design guided Samoan teachers through a context-dependent training to a point where they could employ questioning strategies whose objective is context-independent learning.

Most of the entities in PREL’s service area have been introduced to QUILT through participation in the 1995 QUILT Induction Institute in Honolulu. Because of the success of the approach and its cultural appropriateness, additional institutes are being planned for 1997. For additional information concerning the QUILT program, contact:

Luafata Simanu-Klutz
Pacific Region Educational Laboratory
828 Fort Street Mall, Suite 500
Honolulu, HI 96813-4321

Waipahu Elementary-Hawaiian Electric Ohana Center
Waipahu is an area in Central Oahu characterized by an influx of immigrants and by a preponderance of low income families. In recent years, many students attending Waipahu Elementary School have performed well below national norms on standardized tests and have demonstrated behaviors which portend school failure. In response to this environment, the community has come together in the spirit of Ohana, a basic Hawaiian value connoting family, mutual respect and mutual responsibility.

The Waipahu Elementary-Hawaiian Electric Ohana Center (WEHEO) is a model of integrated services and partnership in Hawaii. The WEHEO (or Ohana Center) is a collection of community-based agencies, community organizations, business and nonprofit organizations. They share the understanding that their contributions to the development and improvement of the school community would satisfy part of the mission of their organizations. Central to their coming together is the agreement that the school should regain its position as a resource for all community residents. The partnering agencies understand that many parents have been reluctant to interact with the school for a variety of reasons. However, they also feel that by co-locating their services at the school and by maintaining a welcoming attitude, parents will have their own purposes for entering the school and will gradually shift their attitudes from apprehension to involvement.

Two further aspects of WEHEO are specific educational components directed at parents. One is a series of workshops to assist parents to help their children with homework. The other is on-going family literacy classes. The development of these elements of the center has been co-facilitated by staff at the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory (PREL) and by Alu Like, Inc. and Cities in Schools. The approach to curriculum development is based on parents’ learning needs and current levels of proficiency. Participants learn about themselves and their relationships with family members and others in the community, their children’s school, how to communicate with the school, how to read aloud to children, and how to balance a budget at home. Fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and other adults are welcomed to learn together. Preschoolers are also part of this learning community.

School involvement on the part of the parents and on the part of the community at large is demonstrated by WEHEO’s “Hanai a class.” (Hanai is the Hawaiian term for adoption.) Eight agency volunteers, along with eight parents have adopted a fourth grade class. They spend three hours a week in the classroom, working with the teachers to help students improve their oral and written language skills. The mentoring attention not only raises students academic performance, but is having a positive effect on their behavior. For example, students are becoming more appropriately assertive, display better manners and demonstrate negotiation strategies.

The partners have conducted many school-awareness programs since the center’s inception, with good results. On the first anniversary of the center, more than 1,100 parents and children attended a school activity, whereas previously it was difficult to get one parent for any event. Other results are equally inspiring. For example, a mother and her two boys are no longer “in trouble” at school. The mother has become a model parent for the ohana, showing the spirit of volunteerism and potential to be a parent trainer for projects. The boys are back on track at school. Daily attendance at the school has shown astonishing improvement over a relatively short period of time. Evidence is mounting that by involving as many community elements as possible, WEHEO is making a positive impact. For additional information concerning WEHEO, contact:

Lorie Kanno
WEHEO Center Project Director
Waipahu Elementary School
94-465 Farrington Hwy.
Waipahu, HI 96797

Foreign Language Partnership Project (FLPP)
A pilot version of the Foreign Language Partnership Project (FLPP) was funded for two years by the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa under the directorship of Dr. Kathryn Davis. The purposes of the project were to address: 1) the low academic achievement among historically under-served minority students; 2) low oral and literacy proficiency among university level foreign language learners; and 3) national needs for a bilingual workforce for international business purposes.

“At risk” high school students who are native speakers of less commonly-taught languages were hired and trained to provide tutoring for the university students who were studying those languages. The “at-risk” high school students supplemented and enriched the foreign language instruction the university provides by providing one-on-one and small group tutoring (at no cost to the university students), as well as occasional target language experiences such as immigrant community/family events.

In the 1994-95 academic year, five native speakers of Ilokano and Tagalog from a Honolulu area high school tutored five university students; in the 1995-96 academic year, four native speakers of Ilokano and two Samoan native speakers from the same school tutored 11 university students. The high school tutors participated in a training course covering sociolinguistic and tutoring strategies prior to beginning their work. The demand for tutoring was overwhelming and only a small fraction of interested university students could be accommodated. In addition, other high school students have expressed interest in teaching their languages to university students. Clearly, this program is filling a need on both sides.

The sessions generally lasted from an hour to an hour and a half, and consisted of working on the university students’ homework as well as other, more communicative and culturally relevant activities. These activities included dancing (the Samoan groups) and talking about cultural activities such as holidays. Several times groups sought out situations in which they would use the target language, as, for example, when they went to Filipino restaurants and ordered food in the Tagalog language. Finally, participants often used the time to gossip in the target language or a mixture of the target language and English.

One of the benefits of the program was that the tutors’ language skills increased, in both their own language and in English. In the case of their native language, tutors developed metalinguistic awareness, grammar rules and the semantics of the language. In the case of English, they became more confident, acquired new vocabulary, and generally improved their fluency. The tutors were able to maintain good grades in high school while they worked in the program, and although several of them already had some college plans, they gained more confidence in their ability to attend and succeed in college. They also felt that they became more responsible and mature due to the nature of the job. All expressed pride in their first language, and pride in helping others, especially college students, learn it. They also viewed being bilingual (or multilingual) as an advantage, both personally and economically. They reported using their own language both at home and in the public domain when they are with other native speakers, and feel this is appropriate. They also feel that English is important, and use it when they are with people who do not speak their language. Because they feel it is important for immigrants and their descendants to maintain their language, they want their children to be bilingual in their language and English.

University students remarked that they benefited in many different ways, and regardless of their language progress, it was nevertheless a positive experience. The students gained confidence in speaking the language outside class. For instance, some students who were learning their heritage language began speaking this language with their parents. They also improved their listening comprehension, speaking, and pronunciation skills, and increased their awareness concerning structure, grammar and vocabulary.

Giving the high school students increased responsibility (and paying them for their valuable services) served to increase their self-esteem, appreciate their own bilingualism, and improve their overall linguistic and metalinguistic skills. The improved language skills and attitudes among both the high school and the university students can help overcome America’s monolingualism, which is becoming a liability in a global, service-oriented economy. For additional information concerning the Foreign Language Partnership Project, contact:

Dr. Kathryn Davis
Center for Second Language Research
Moore Hall 570
1890 East-West Rd.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

Conclusion
The practices featured in this issue of Promising Practices in the Pacific are not intended to represent an inclusive listing of practices in the region. The Career Academy models, QUILT, the Ohana Center at Waipahu Elementary School and FLLP are only representative of the range and variety of practices that are being implemented by Pacific schools. These practices are featured because they are major innovations to restructure educational delivery. Additional issues of Promising Practices in the Pacific will identify and feature other promising practices for consideration by Pacific educators.

*Stan Koki is program specialist, Pacific Region Educational Laboratory.

This publication was produced with funds from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, under contract number RJ96006601. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of OERI, the Department, or any other agency of the U.S. Government.