Castle community explores ways to help students succeed

More than 50 parents, educators and community leaders gathered Thursday night to brainstorm ideas for redesigning instruction at secondary schools serving Kaneohe, Kahaluu and Waiahole in hopes of boosting student achievement and getting more kids to graduation day.

The Castle-Kahuku complex education “town hall” was the kickoff of what’s expected to be a nine-month community engagement process that will end with a comprehensive plan for addressing longstanding student performance concerns at King Intermediate and Castle High.

The plan is expected to take another one to two years to implement.

“We are really about redesigning as a community,” Lea Albert, Castle-Kahuku complex area superintendent, told attendees Thursday. “We are going to redesign these schools based on best practice. We have a lot of work to do.”

The meeting, held at the Kokokahi YWCA, was aimed at drawing out innovative solutions to complex problems facing students and schools and recruiting members for a committee that will help draft the final plan.

Pam Kino, a counselor at King Intermediate, said finding solutions to problems at the schools won’t be easy.

“The solution is as multifaceted as the problem,” predicted Kino, whose children attended Castle High.

Jean Fong, whose son graduated from Castle High in 2010, said parental engagement is key to improving student achievement. But so is making sure students are engaged — and having effective teachers who can act as mentors.

Fong said her son struggled in his first two years at Castle.

Then, she said, something changed and his grades improved dramatically.

“He found teachers that were ready to engage him,” she said.

Some of the out-of-the-box solutions that the redesign committee considers might center on providing different instruction or even separate classrooms or campuses for boys, who are experiencing a growing achievement gap in schools across the state and nation. The committee might also consider putting a greater emphasis on project-based learning.

Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee and a Castle High graduate, applauded the redesign effort, saying that it was about figuring out what resources are available and how they can be better used.

“It’s forcing us to think outside of the box,” she said.

Albert said the goal of the work is to ensure all students graduate prepared for college or a competitive career. That means students actually have to graduate. Today, many Castle students aren’t even getting there.

The school’s graduation rate — 73 percent — compares with a statewide average of 80 percent. Meanwhile, about one-fifth of Castle High freshmen must repeat the grade. Some, Albert said, repeat more than once.

At the same time, most schools in the Castle complex have seen steady gains in reading and math proficiency in recent years. Of the 10 schools in the complex, eight met adequate yearly progress benchmarks this year under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Ben Parker Elementary, for example, celebrated a meteoric rise in test scores this year, with 85 percent of students testing proficient in reading (from 55 percent in 2010) and 83 percent in math (from just 38 percent).