Education summit explores options for transforming system

Some 900 teachers, students, administrators, parents and community members answered Gov. David Ige’s call to add their voice to an ongoing conversation about improving Hawaii public schools by spending the better part of Saturday at the governor’s education summit.

The event was organized by a 19-member advisory team the governor has tasked with developing a “blueprint” that he hopes will guide a transformation of the state’s public school system. The summit was designed to help launch that effort by soliciting input from various stakeholders.

“We are expanding the team from 19 to 1,019,” the governor said in his keynote address, referring to those in attendance Saturday. “Our public school system touches all of us. A strong education system is the foundation for strong families, strong communities and strong economies. We all have a stake in what we’re here to talk about today.”

Over the course of a seven-hour program at the Hawai‘i Convention Center, summit attendees heard from education officials and policy experts through speeches and panel discussions, and participated in brainstorming activities and feedback sessions.

The advisory group — which includes current and former teachers, principals, community leaders and business executives — was assembled in the spring, after passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, which devolves federal control over public education to states when it comes to things like school accountability, teacher evaluations, student testing and support for struggling schools.

“The legislation reverts the trend toward a national school board, and begins to move back decisions into the hands of classroom teachers, (local) school boards, governors and state legislators,” Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the U.S. Senate education committee and a former U.S. secretary of education, said in a video played at the summit. “And if this law is implemented properly, as Congress intended, with your help, I believe it will usher in a new era of innovation in the classroom.”

Although Ige has dubbed the advisory group his ESSA team, the governor says he views the new flexibility afforded in the law as an opportunity for Hawaii to reimagine its public school system beyond the scope of the federal law.

“We need to design a system that empowers those closest to the children to make decisions about how resources can best be used for them,” Ige said. “We need to involve all stakeholders, asking hard questions, listening and learning from each other to begin creating a new blueprint for our public schools.”

Ige contends the state also needs to do a better job at preparing students for the future.

“Today’s kindergartners will be employed in jobs that don’t exist yet, using technology that has not been invented, to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet. … How do we create a public education system that prepares graduates for their futures — not our past?” he asked. “My vision for public education is future-focused, empowered school communities that inspire innovation, creativity and leadership in a healthy and safe learning environment.”

The federal ESSA law, which replaces the No Child Left Behind Act, is scheduled to be fully implemented in the 2017-18 school year. The legislation requires states to develop a comprehensive and collaborative state educational plan with “timely and meaningful consultation with the governor, members of the state Legislature … and state Board of Education, local educational agencies … teachers, principals, other school leaders, charter school leaders … administrators, other staff and parents.”

While the state Department of Education has started work on the plan, Ige wants his ESSA team, using input gathered at the education summit and subsequent community meetings, to share ideas with the Board of Education before Hawaii submits its plan for federal approval in the spring. Under the state Constitution, the BOE has the authority “to formulate statewide educational policy.” Ige has so far appointed seven of the board’s nine voting members.

Lance Mizumoto, a bank executive and chairman of the BOE, said Saturday’s “large and diverse group of attendees” will help ensure that Hawaii’s ESSA plan is “robust and thoughtful.”

“I think we all recognize that there is no magic bullet to solve all the challenges we face in improving public education,” Mizumoto said. “But this event demonstrates we do have the passion and the will to enact change.”

Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi emphasized that students have to be at the center of decision making.

“What resonates most to me is the question, ‘What is best for each child?’ This must be center of our thinking, planning and action,” she said. “When we are all asking this question and making decisions through that lens, I think our unified efforts will uplift us and we will be able to move public education dramatically forward in the right direction for our children and our state.”

Brennan Lee, a recent Mililani High School graduate who serves on the governor’s ESSA team, said he appreciates that the new federal law is student-centered.

“With the Every Student Succeeds Act, it truly takes the individual potentials and interests of students to heart and runs with it,” said Lee, who just completed his term as the student member on the Board of Education. “The governor says that we really want to create a blueprint for the best public school system in the nation, and in order to even pursue something like that, we need to be empowered. And I believe that this summit accomplishes that.”

Naomi Franklin and Grace Leon, incoming seniors at McKinley High School, said they attended Saturday’s event to help add student voices to the conversation.

“With the new law about giving more power back down to those of us who are students and teachers and administrators, I’m really excited about it,” Franklin said. “And I can see what they mean, because it’s reflected in this event today: A lot of it is, ‘Come with your perspectives. Come speak about things that concern you. Come speak about things that work for you. Come speak about the things in your community that can help others.’ If we can work together and find a happy balance, it would be really, really effective.”

Retired Principal Darrel Galera, whom Ige named to lead his advisory group, said the team will be digesting and summarizing the ideas and suggestions shared at the summit to help shape the blueprint.

“It’s a massive effort of bringing together the voices of Hawaii,” Galera said. “What we have today is just the beginning of design ideas to get to the governor’s vision of a blueprint that takes us, really, into the future. It’s a lot of work, but it’s going to be built on the voices and the ideas and insights of our people.”

The dates and locations of upcoming community town hall meetings, where the initial recommendations from the summit will be shared, have yet to be finalized.