UH, DOE partner About a third of students who enter the University of Hawaii-Manoa need remedial help in English, and the same can be said for up to half of those entering UH community colleges.
to prepare students
for college
College freshmen often
need remedial assistance in
English and mathematicsBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comEven more are unprepared for college-level math.
That's one reason the University of Hawaii is building partnerships with the Department of Education and the Good Beginnings Alliance -- so that students coming out of Hawaii's public schools will be better prepared to enter college.
"What we're trying to do is really increase the amount of communication that is occurring between high schools and colleges so that the expectations are clear not just to the students, but to the faculty (at the high schools)," said Kapiolani Community College Provost John Morton, one of several college administrators who have cited remediation statistics in testimony to the state Legislature.
An important part of the community colleges' mission is an open-enrollment policy geared to give students a second chance to catch up on skills they missed in high school, Morton said.
However, coming to the community college unprepared could add an extra semester or two to their time in college. "That's a lot of wasted time and energy," Morton said.
UH President Evan Dobelle testified last month to the Senate Education and House Higher Education committees about the need for greater integration between the university and Department of Education.
"Presently, we are forced to utilize resources on remediating too many unprepared freshmen, rather than engaging them in the true higher education that they seek," he said. "It's not their fault, it's our responsibility. Cooperation and coordination will maximize both the university's and the DOE's impact on the community."
No one points fingers at the Department of Education, but rather at a lack of communication between high schools and the university about the expectations for entering freshmen.
Teacher training and staff development, with the assistance of the university, is one way to open the lines of communication. Bringing UH resources -- and graduate assistants -- into the public schools is another way to strengthen the curriculum, particularly in math and science.
Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Education Committee, said that as the public schools look at changing high school graduation requirements, they should consider whether they should be changed "to better prepare our students for the work force or higher education."
One thing Sakamoto would like to see funded is a database system that will help track students from high school until they finish college.
Right now, the same student is identified by one number in public school and another in college, Sakamoto said. Combining the computer database could help the university identify how a student performed while in the DOE and help public school teachers assess how prepared their students were for their college courses.
Another advantage of a shared database is that it would give the university the ability to view a public school student's electronic portfolio -- a self-selected sampling of the student's work that demonstrates mastery of the curriculum standards -- rather than just a transcript, said Kathy Kawaguchi, assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and student support for the DOE.
Kawaguchi said there already are several partnerships between the state's public school and university systems.
For example, UH and the DOE are working to provide a support system to help public school teachers understand and implement the language arts standards.
The two systems also partnered for a National Science Foundation Grant to provide math and science instructional support at rural public schools, where there is a shortage of certified teachers in those subjects. The grant provides staff development, Internet-based activities and resource support, Kawaguchi said.
The DOE is working with UH-Manoa on another grant to provide research personnel and graduate assistants to help math and science teachers in the public schools.
One partnership is between UH-Hilo's astronomy program and Big Island schools. "What we're trying to do is not only interest students to go into astronomy as a field of study and a career, but it's also really about being sensitive to the cultural aspects of Mauna Kea," Kawaguchi said.
There is also the Running Start program, which allows 11th- and 12th-graders to take community college courses that apply to both their high school and UH diplomas, and various partnerships with community college technical programs.
Randy Hitz, dean of the College of Education at UH-Manoa, said the university's partnership with the DOE was one of the major attractions in his decision to come here.
"What we're trying to do is maximize every student's education, help them understand what the possibilities are," Hitz said.
University of Hawaii
State Department of Education
