$3.5 Million in Grants Awarded to Honolulu Area for Innovative Education Programs

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of almost $3.5 million in grants to eight Honolulu-area organizations for educational improvement efforts under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Through the act’s Native Hawaiian Education Program, the money will be used to support innovative projects that address the educational needs of native Hawaiian children and adults.

“These funds will help promote excellence in education for native Hawaiians,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. “From beginning reading to gifted and talented programs, this financial support should lend a helping hand by providing the islands with resources to assist in building a strong educational foundation for its native people.”

The Honolulu-area grant recipients include:

Honolulu -- College Connections Hawaii, $312,029.
Honolulu -- Keiki O Ka ’Aina Family Learning Center, $376,859.
Honolulu -- Pacific American Foundation, $422,345.
Honolulu -- Pacific American Foundation, $494,565.
Honolulu -- Partners in Development, $508,726.
Honolulu -- Partners in Development, $510,222.
Kaneohe -- Ke Kula O Samuel M Kamakau, $464,114.
Kapolei -- Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture, $402,989.
In addition, The University of Hawaii at Hilo received a $344,930 award.

Funds can be used to support early education and care programs, family-based education centers, beginning reading and literacy programs, activities to address the needs of gifted and talented native Hawaiian students, special education programs, professional development for educators, and activities to enable native Hawaiians to complete postsecondary education.

Here’s a summary of the projects.

PACIFIC AMERICAN FOUNDATION -- The Ho’ala Hou project will meet the educational needs of native Hawaiian youth from at-risk communities through the development of a culture-based parent involvement program that incorporates best practices in family-school-community partnerships that are student-centered and focused on post-secondary education plans and attainment. The project will be located on the island of Oahu and will target recruiting efforts at all three schools in the Windward district. The project will serve 200 adolescents and their parents as well as 10 adult facilitators from predominantly native Hawaiian communities.

KEIKI O KA ’AINA FAMILY LEARNING CENTER -- The Community Alliances for Research and Education (C.A.R.E.) project will benefit children by improving academic achievement in literacy and social-emotional health. The project will have positive impacts on parents by increasing their involvement in their children’s education and providing an array of programs to empower families to serve as their child’s first teachers. The project will also collaborate with more than 30 partners to form community alliances and share research results and evaluations with related Native Hawaiian agencies. The project will serve over 5,500 total parent/caregivers and children and 200 teachers in 30 Hawaiian community sites on Oahu and Maui.

KE KULA O SAMUEL M KAMAKAU -- The goal of the Hookahua project is to increase student achievement through the vertical alignment of curriculum and the Hawaiian Language. The Hookahua project will design a “stair-cased” curriculum through the Standards-Based Change (SBC) process for its K-12 public school students. In its first year, the focus will be on reading and literacy proficiency in both the English and Hawaiian Languages. The project will add Math and Science over the next two years and individual student achievement will be tracked over the life of the project and beyond. The project will initially serve the 112 students projected to attend Kamakau and eventually hopes to serve the 1500 students in the Hawaii Department of Education’s Hawaiian Language Instruction Program.

INSTITUTE FOR NATIVE PACIFIC EDUCATION AND CULTURE -- The Kulia I Ka Pono project will improve educational outcomes and increase capacity-building efforts in Native Hawaiian communities through the development and implementation of a comprehensive professional development program for prospective and practicing early childhood educators in Native Hawaiian communities. The project will address academic and best-practice standards, prepare participants for education-related careers in Hawaii and link to enhanced pedagogy and positive learning outcomes in children. The project will serve 45 adults and 300 children from four predominantly Native Hawaiian rural communities on three islands: Nanakuli and Waianae (Oahu), Hilo (Hawaii), and Kaunakakai (Molokai).

PACIFIC AMERICAN FOUNDATION -- The Akamai Alpha project will meet the educational needs of Native Hawaiians through the development and implementation of a culture-based financial analyst training program that addresses academic and industry standards, increases participant interest, experience, and excellence in finance, and prepares them for high-earning careers in the business world. The project will serve at least four adults and 60 youth from predominantly Native Hawaiian communities on Oahu. The project will target all 24 public high schools and four community colleges on Oahu.

PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT -- The ’Ike Ea project is a collaboration with the University of Hawaii College of Engineering (UHCE), the Hawaii Center for Advanced Communication (HCAC), and the Partners in Development Tech Together Program (TTP). The project hopes to effect a systemic change in the education of at-risk Native Hawaiian elementary and middle school children in physical science relating to technology, electronics and engineering. The project will integrate their families and their community into the process of learning science and technology at school and empower them to continue to learn at home. The project will also provide teacher training for Native Hawaiian science and math teachers that delivers a template for integrating standards-based science and math requirements with hands-on electronics, utilization of wireless capabilities through laboratory activities and lessons. The project will impact approximately 8,000 students, their families and community members as well as approximately 140 science and math teachers.

PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT -- The Ka Pa’alana Traveling Preschool and Homeless Outreach project will serve the homeless population on the Leeward coast of Oahu through a mobile preschool outreach designed to transition families into emergency shelters and to offer a center-based preschool and family literacy services at two emergency. The overall goal of this program is to prepare homeless Native Hawaiian families for success by breaking the “culture of poverty” and empowering the family through a culturally relevant education program. The project will serve approximately 100 children and 120 adult caregivers annually at shelter sites. It will also serve about 300 children and 250 adults at beaches and beach parks via the Malama Mobile.

COLLEGE CONNECTIONS HAWAII -- The Hawaiian Undergraduate Initiative (HUI) project is designed to provide both financial and academic support to help students succeed in college and graduate. The HUI project is an innovative program that enhances educational services for Native Hawaiian college students. The project will provide financial support to participants including scholarships and funding to defray costs of transportation and childcare. The project will also provide training in basic financial literacy, academic support through tutoring and preparation classes for college placement tests. The project will serve approximately 500 Native Hawaiian students from around the state who are now enrolled in undergraduate programs. The services will be provided at more than 20 different locations on five islands, reaching students at most colleges in the state.

Meanwhile, the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s grant will be used to support the Olelo Ola Oral Language Proficiency Project. Its goal is to create a comprehensive system of services for grades K-3 to foster highly literate and orally proficient students in Hawaiian Language Immersion Program (HLIP) schools. The project will involve 15 elementary schools and invite 45 teachers serving 809 K-3 students on five islands to participate within the next three years.