Isle schools rated low, except
by students’ parents

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii residents continue to give higher grades to the nation's public schools, compared to public schools in Hawaii.

But fewer feel the conditions of public schools here have gotten worse than they were in 1994 and 1996.

And public school parents who are closer to the schools give their child's school higher marks.

Those are just some of the findings of the Hawaii Opinion Poll conducted by the Department of Education in February to gauge people's perceptions and opinions of the public schools. The survey has been conducted at least every two years since 1990.

The data are among other information schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu will consider in his ongoing comprehensive needs assessment of Hawaii's schools.

Five hundred Hawaii adults participated in the phone poll, conducted by Mattson Sunderland Research, which has a margin of error of about 5 percent.

The respondents fell into two groups -- those with children in the public or private schools, and those without children in the schools.

Among the four biggest problems in Hawaii schools cited by all respondents were:

Lack of financial support, 27.2 percent.

Large classes and overcrowding, 19.0 percent.

Poor curriculum or low standards, 13.8 percent.

Lack of discipline or poor class management, 12.4 percent.

Respondents with children in the public schools, however, put lack of materials, supplies and equipment as their third biggest problem, ahead of poor curriculum or low standards.

Public school parents also rate their own children's schools higher than the nation's schools and higher than the rest of Hawaii's schools overall.

"The implication is they have more information and more direct contact with the schools than those without children in the schools," said Dr. Betsy Brandt, who oversees the poll.

These perceptions are an indication that the Department of Education needs to communicate a more realistic picture of the public schools, particularly to those with little or no contact with them, Brandt said.

The problems in the schools cited by respondents come as no surprise to the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

The union has pursued school funding and smaller class sizes as top priorities for decades, said spokeswoman Danielle Lum.

"If we reduce class sizes, discipline won't be as big a problem as it is right now," she said. She said teachers spend at least 25 percent of their time disciplining students in their classrooms.

When compared to the results of the 1997 annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll, the nation is more concerned with matters of school discipline, drug use and violence.