‘Student-centered’ school prepares for
accreditation

After that process, Waialae Elementary
will be evaluated by the state
Board of Education

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Waialae Elementary -- the state's first "student-centered" school -- has begun a year of self-study in preparation for accreditation by the Western Association of Schools.

The Waialae School Board hopes to include the self-study document, accreditation report il,20p6,8p9 and accreditation term as major elements in their upcoming fourth-year evaluation before the Board of Education.

Waialae was the first public school to seek autonomy in September 1994 under a law authorizing "student-centered schools."

The law allows up to 25 "student-centered schools," also known as "charter schools," to take control of their budget, curriculum and schedules. Waialae and Lanikai Elementary are the only schools that have applied for student-centered status.

They must evaluate themselves every year and be evaluated by the school board after four years.

Waialae began its accreditation self-study in the fall and expects to complete it in December, in time for an accreditation team visit in spring 1999.

"The study is consistent with what we've been doing for the past three years," said Kathy Tibbetts, a parent and member of the school board.

Rather than have the Board of Education set criteria, the school felt that the accreditation process was a more "holistic evaluation about the quality of the school," she said.

Waialae is using the same accreditation process, called Focus on Learning, that Kamehameha Schools went through this month.

The process forces the school to focus on what students are actually learning and accomplishing, whether they are meeting expected learning outcomes and what the school can do to improve.

Some state school board members have expressed concern that there is no data available for the board or parents to determine how well their children are doing in comparison with other public-school students.

Waialae has not administered the Stanford Achievement Test -- a national achievement test given to public-school students in grades 3, 6, 8 and 10 -- in three years.

Instead, teachers compile "portfolios" of student work throughout the year, use developmental checklists and produce reports that assess how students are doing in reading, writing and math.

Teams of parents, faculty and community representatives then audit samples of these portfolios at the end of the year.

For the past three years, the school also has held public reviews of its reports and included public input in their annual assessments. Fiscal audits have been conducted for the past two years.

Waialae hopes to expand the student outcomes data it collects to include a look at student success beyond Waialae, Tibbetts said.

It plans to collect the first-semester grade-point averages of Waialae students who go on to Kaimuki Intermediate, and compare them with students from other elementary schools in the school district.

Also, the school will begin using national standardized tests called the New Standards Reference Exams. The tests measure how well students perform against standards, rather than against other students.

Over the past three years, the school has grappled with many hard issues but is moving forward, Tibbetts said.

"We're really starting to hold ourselves accountable at the student-teacher level," she said.

"It's to our credit that we've gotten there."