 Happy New Year viewers. Welcome to this show, the state of the state of Hawaii. This is a my weekly show on Mondays. Today, the topic of the show is about Hawaii schools post COVID after closures and interruptions and other dilemmas that we've experienced over the last period of that awful COVID pandemic. And our question as posted is now that schools are open are they restoring learning? So we'll have some interesting talk about how that's going and how much that costs and how it is supported. So Sherry, welcome to you for coming on the first day of this new year. Well, thank you, Stephanie. I'm so glad to be back again on the state of the state. Well, I'm really pleased because this is an ongoing topic. It's not anything that is just presentable in one little session or statement. And I know people can follow the Department of Education's website, which is, as you know, up there under HawaiiPublicSchools.org. It's a lot of information, a tremendous amount of information. And of course, it has to change all the time, too, as everything becomes clear. But Sherry, I thought maybe you could start us out about how you go about knowing what's going on with this situation in terms of, first of all, what is the status of the learning challenge out there? Where, what is it that the Department has to cope with? The Department of Education and all of the schools have to cope with now as a result of the pandemic? So can you just describe the task as you see it? And then we can go on and talk about how to meet the needs. Sure. So just a bit about my group. It is a coalition of nonprofits and parent groups. And we all came together about 12 years ago to engage and understand what's going on at the Department of Education. So the way we do that is by attending all Board of Education meetings, all education legislative sessions, or as many as possible, or where we feel there is priority amongst our members. And we just consistently keep in touch with the Department's reports to the Board, and also legislation that affects our public school system. So we've been doing this for the past 12 years, and really that's how we keep up with the status. So moving on to what has happened in the past, really three years since the pandemic started in 2020, you can imagine it was a shock to the whole system, having to close schools for a while, having to do hybrid learning or distance learning at one point. And then that turned into hybrid learning and to finally, last year, the Department returned to in-person learning 100%. So we've gone through a lot. And I really want to thank and appreciate all of the educators and, of course, the families and the students for persevering and doing their best amidst this really complicated and difficult time. But what ended up happening, or what is what is happening as we speak is because of the instability and inconsistency of instruction, and just the social emotional well-being of students being affected, we've had some learning loss, especially amongst our high-need students, the economically disadvantaged, the English learners, and the students receiving special education. Because their instruction was disjointed a bit, you can imagine they struggled, I would say all students struggled, but the high-need students struggled even more. And that's really what we need to address going forward. This has been a priority of the Board of Education. It is certainly a priority of the coalition. And of course, we want to get all students back to where we were pre-pandemic. But in particular, we want to pay attention to the students who have the greatest needs. And so that's where we're focused. And it seems the Board and the Department are also focused in that area as well. So you would say you were aligned with the mission of the Department of Education. So the way they lay out their activity going forward, you're looking at it in the same manner. So they see the demand that's out there for these special groups of young students, all of them actually, but to make sure that all of the students, the English language students and those that you mentioned on high-need, are seen to so that they can make as much progress as they need to as well. So I mean, do you align yourself purposefully that way? Or do you superimpose? Do you have other goals beyond that? I'm not asking you to give us any big secrets, but I was just wondering about what is your strategy? Well, it all... Yes, we focus in on the data. And we hope that the Department is data-driven as well. They say they are. And recently, they did present a large amount of data regarding the past three years, how students did in the Smarter Balance Assessment, which is the state assessment that's given to students in certain grade levels. And we've followed what the data says. And according to that data, so just in sum, pre-pandemic, we had certain levels of performance academically. And even pre-pandemic, there were differences between the non-high-need students and the high-need students. We call that the achievement gap. And in Hawaii in particular, we've had a persistently wide gap where there is a difference in the performance of the non-high needs and the high-need students. During the pandemic, all students declined in academic performance. You can imagine because of these exogenous shock of the pandemic and this inconsistency and the type of instruction, all students went down, but our high-need students fell further. Last year, it was the first year of all in-person instruction. So, fortunately, there was a rise with all students. Of course, the rise was greater for the non-high-need students compared to the high-need students, but we haven't recovered back to pre-pandemic levels. So, our priorities really stem from what we see in the data. And we think that because the high-need students really had a disproportionately negative impacts from the pandemic, we feel that there needs to be particular supports for them, appropriate supports, so that they can get back on track as well as, of course, the non-high-need students. Well, do you think that the department is looking as closely at the data as, can you discern that they are using the data to guide their thinking about priorities and assistance? Yes. I do believe that the department is looking at the data and their intention and their objective is to try to get all students back on track, and they're certainly aware that there's these disparities. What is not so clear to us is how. And this is where we keep asking the department to articulate more clearly so that we can all understand how the schools or the system as a whole is trying to address this systemic problem. Yeah. So, I was going to say, when you say data, that they look at the data, we're talking about the Strive Hawaii set of assessments, correct? So, that is the data that would be driving their decision. So, there are four data on the website. Anybody, I can go up to those websites and take a look at that Strive Hawaii data. Okay. So, when they use that, okay. And then you're just saying that the way they look at it, the how part of it, is where you are interested to know more. Well, the department has a number of websites portraying what you refer to, which is the Strive Hawaii data system. So, just so that people are aware, the Strive Hawaii system is a set of indicators that was established by the superintendent, two superintendents ago, which was a way for stakeholders or the public to see how the department was doing with these indicators. So, examples include the proficiency results from the smarter balance assessment. There's also a look at chronic absenteeism. There's a look at college going rates. There's a look at third grade literacy. There's a look at teacher retention, teacher retention rates. So, it's 14 indicators where we can, with these indicators, see the status of how the system is doing. So, when I say data, when I was referring to data before, yes, it is the Strive Hawaii data, but it also is focusing in on the state assessments for example, English language arts, mathematics and science, which are shown by the results of the smarter balance assessment, which is the state assessment that evaluates whether or not a student is proficient in common core standards for that particular grade. So, every state has a state assessment, Hawaii has chosen the smarter balance assessment, and every state also has standards that they adopt, which defines in each grade level what a student is supposed to master. So, when we look at the smarter balance assessment or academic performance in English language arts, math and science, we see that there has been a decline since the pandemic in all subjects actually, and a rise in all subjects, except the, I should, let me take that back. There has been improvements, but not a rise back to pre-pandemic levels. So, where we are actually doing well in is in English language arts. Again, we are making greater improvements in English language arts than we are in mathematics and science. So, getting back to your original question, the Strive Hawaii system is a series of indicators. Amongst those, the smarter balance assessment results are looking at proficiency in certain subjects like English language arts, math and science. And by those results, we can see how our high needs and our non-high needs students have performed, and we can see the trends of where they are. So, that's kind of what we look at. Of course, we look at the other indicators too, but the proficiency is one of the indicators. It's just one indicator that is quantitative and measurable, and we can see the movement of how our students have fared during the pandemic. So, when you say proficiency, that is the criterion or the marker for something like maybe grade level of performance. What does proficiency mean if parents get this data, which I hope, do they get the data? That's another question, is do they get the smarter balance information about their students and are they presented to PTA or what have you? And then what does proficiency mean? Proficiency means whether or not a student is proficient in the common core standards for that grade level. So, the evaluation, it goes one, two, three and four for a student, whether they have not met proficiency, whether they're nearing proficiency, whether they've met proficiency, or whether they've exceeded. So, that's the way a student is evaluated, and then they aggregate all of this, and you can see the percentage of proficient or nearing or not meeting for a particular school. So, it's whether they, depending on the score that a student receives on the assessment, they can indicate whether or not a student is nearing, meeting, not meeting, or exceeding proficiency. Our interest, of course, as your organization is interested, is in the stakeholders, of course, the communities and the parents who want to know what's happening in the schools with their children. And are people, are you finding that people are getting information about these data that you're suggesting are driving the DOE's decision making, like it drives your work, but a little different level? Okay, so yes. So, there is a lot of information on the Department of Education website. A lot. Navigating it is another issue. It's very difficult to find information about your student, if I'm a parent. I don't think individual student information is on the website. So, a school delivers information about their student to parents. I actually don't know if the smarter balance assessment results is provided to parents. I think there's evaluation, there are report cards, and there are grades given to students, but the state assessment is usually reported in an aggregate way. So, either a school will show the proficiency, percentage proficient students of that particular school, or we can look at it as a state, how we're doing, the number of, the percent of proficient students in our state for particular subject matter. So, going back to your question, the information may be there, but it's difficult to find. Now, the reason I'm able to, or our coalition is able to navigate is because we pay attention and make it a point to find it and understand it. It is not that easy for somebody who just doesn't know anything and goes on the website to find the information that they need. It is a challenge to try to find the information. I've spent many hours on the website trying to find the right information. I think that that's a good caution, but the fact of the matter is you can go up there, and I know I just recently, yesterday, looked up there to make sure that I knew what I could see and easily understand, and I did find that all of the school's performances on those indicators are listed by school from grades 4 through 7, 6, I think, 3 through 6, 3 through 6, because, of course, 3 is important for the English language learning, for the English language arts, certainly the reading. But anyway, I'm just mentioning that, so viewers know that they can go up there and take a look at their school for sure, and then maybe there's other information they can glean too. But yeah. Now, I do want to mention that the proficiency data isn't the only data, and there are many stakeholders who don't want to focus just on this smarter balance assessment. After all, a child is a whole child, and this is just one component. Now, that said, the school system doesn't have really great measures for assessing other things. Recently, the department launched a assessment for social-emotional learning. It's trying to look at the emotional state of students. There's also satisfaction surveys. So it's not the proficiency data isn't the only thing. And of course, in the stripe-high system, you're looking at other factors like absenteeism or looking at the new teachers and how long they stay or teacher retention rates. You're looking at facilities. You're also looking, you're looking more at the total system. So it's just that for proficiency, that seems to be what stakeholders do want to know whether or not a student is doing well in their academics. And so it tends to be a focal point, but I want to mention that it's not the only element that we should be concerned with. Very, very important point. Yes. Well, I wanted to switch over now to the other helper in this effort to bring our students back to their best performances. And that's the federal government and the funding that has come to all states, including Hawaii. And we have very little time, but I just wanted to not get too bogged down in nomenclature here or acronyms. But we are now at the beginning of 2023. And as I understand it, and the answer, which stands for the secondary school emergency relief fund, which is the federal government's funding for states, for schools to to mitigate learning loss and get schools back in order again. Now, the first that this year, the funding is at the level of the funding level out. I think it's 400 and some odd million was the last tranche, but there's been almost 700 million issued during the pandemic of supplemental federal funds. And I know we don't have much time, but I'll just mention, I'll try to summarize. So let me just say that those funds, as you say, the first one is, as you said, and I think the second one is like 400. And that one lapses at the end of 2024. So there's a big tranche that's going to lapse this year, which is that many tens of millions of dollars. And then into next year, we have that. So with that funding coming in, do you see that we're getting enough information or the stakeholders, the community, the parents are getting to understand how much support we have in Hawaii as well as in the other states to make a difference and to get us out of this predicament? How did you see that going now? No, we do not have the information to know how those funds are being used. And that has been a very frustrating point for myself and the coalition. We keep asking. One of the issues is our system is one of empowerment. So a lot of discretion is left up to the individual schools. And because individual schools do different things, it's hard for the department to articulate as a system what we're doing as a system to address, in particular, our high needs students, because if all the schools are doing things differently, it's hard to consolidate that information and communicate it back to stakeholders in a way that's really systematic and understandable. So we really don't know how the funds are being used. And that is something that once again, I keep asking the department, and it's difficult to get a coherent explanation. So what are you, this would mean that the accountability plan is not clearly presented or stated for how they're going to assess what's going on in every school and across the counties and in the state, right? So are they lacking an accountability plan? Or is there, is it? Yes. So it's difficult to ensure accountability. The leadership never established clear goals or targets or objectives for the use of these federal funds. So we almost have to just trust the fact that the department is using the monies well. We don't know how they're tracking improvement besides these annual state assessments. And once again, it's difficult to know whether or not we are really getting a good return on investment on these funds. And they're precious funds. It's a one-time, unprecedented situation where we have these supplemental funds. So you would hope that we could use it in the most strategic way. But it's not clear to us. Okay. And it is an enormous amount of funds. And you're so right. This isn't going to happen again. And I do have my numbers here. And I just wanted to say them again for S or two, which is money for this year 2023. And that figure is $183.6 million. And this is up on the Department of Education's website. And the S or three monies that are going to lapse in 24. So that'll be the end of it there. So that's $412.5 million. So it would be interesting to see how that is getting parsed out and what future plans they may have to do, the kinds of things you're talking about, they might need to do, Sherry. So do you all make recommendations to the department or the state or what's the feedback loop from the state side of it? We do. We do. What we have suggested very shortly is there are schools that are exemplary. Like I said, schools have a lot of discretion and they can do, they have a lot of discretion to do what they feel is best. And what we try to look at are Title I schools, Title I meaning having more than half of economically disadvantaged students, Title I schools that are doing extremely well in terms of their academic proficiency on these indicators that we were talking about. This shows that despite having student demographics that aren't necessarily favorable for all families because they're economically disadvantaged, for example, they're still able to have quality instruction, consistent instruction, and it shows up in their performance. So we would suggest that the department highlight, not only highlight, but see how they might be able to scale some of these practices because it's true we are in an empowered system and we do want to give flexibility to our principals and our schools. However, I think the schools also would like some guidance. And I think it's the state's responsibility to try to share some of these best practices in a way that all schools can benefit. So that's really what we try to encourage the department to do and we hope that these schools that are exemplary schools get recognized and really analyze to see how and why they're able to outperform. Well, I know that of course we're getting a short on time, but maybe we can come back and talk about what some of these practices that are needed and are expensive and would be the ways to expand funds. I mean, you look at other states how they're accomplishing these needs and doing things like big tutoring programs or other ways of many other programs that can come in and assist these students, especially these high need students and students that you're describing. And I think it would be interesting to maybe go over what some of the other states are doing that are interesting communities that might have a similarity to Hawaii's circumstances and to know what would make sense. And if we have something like that or maybe just talking about it and recommending it is a way to keep stakeholders informed. I think the community and parents would like to know more about what's happening with all of this funding. And I wasn't here for much of the campaign. So I don't know what our executive leadership, the governor and lieutenant governor, I don't know enough yet about what they're saying, but that would be another place to go to talk about what's happening with these enormous resources. Right. So other states, just to give an example during the pandemic have focused on things like literacy, because if a student is having trouble reading, they're going to struggle throughout their academic careers. And in addition to that, some of these other states also have a very good process of accountability, where they will look at some of these initiatives that were investments from the federal monies to see exactly how effective they were, whether it's an investment in a literacy platform or something like that. It is evaluated and continually evaluated to see if it's working, if there are tweaks, if it can be improved. And so we would really be thrilled if the department had a process like that and was able to be transparent about it and communicated. Now, I know that Hawaii has been awarded a very large literacy grant and we would hope that those funds would be used strategically, particularly because the pandemic has happened and undoubtedly there are struggling elementary school students who would need some supports, really research-based proven supports in literacy. However, once again, the department, while it has a website that describes the grant and describes that the funds were allocated or awarded to I think six complex areas, and it has a brief description, we're not sure of what the progress is and exactly how these funds and what exactly are the initiatives and activities that are being done and we would hope that we would know that progress was being made or not. So again- And you're talking about the department of education? The department of education, yes. So the information that's provided is very general and not specific enough for us to know what it is and how the funds are being used and whether or not it's a good investment. Was it a strategic investment? And here you're addressing of course the accountability issue too and not putting into place an accountability plan that will give them that information and will incorporate the things you're talking about like setting goals and understanding what outcomes they're going for and what that's going to take. And then I know we have to finish, but that is a five-year federal grant and it's really rather paltry compared to what's already in at 50 million for five years. So I think there are many, there's such large gaps here in terms of funds in Hawaii that I think we need to talk a lot about what can be done with those if the U.S., if the Department of Education is needing some feedback. I hope we can help them with that and also to increase viewers and parents and community members understanding of what's happening and maybe thinking about it from their own point of views and experience. So really appreciate all the information today. It's been very informative and we are out of time. So I think Cherie Nakamura who leads the A Coalition for participating today as our guest. And we will be back in two weeks for the state of the state of Hawaii and Mahalo to all our viewers and Aloha and happy New Year to everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.