Patricia Hamamoto knelt before the first-graders in Debbie Yasuda's classroom at Pu'ohala Elementary School in Kane'ohe and stuck out her hand to greet Gabriel Kaneakalau.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Mrs. Hamamoto," she told the child as they shook hands and Gabriel exchanged a solemn look with the state superintendent of education.

"Are you two good friends?" she asked Kaneakalau and the boy next to him, Kaohu Holbron. "Did you give him a handshake or a high five?"

Holbron shook his head.

"We do that at recess," he explained patiently before going back to his Wednesday morning math lesson. Math is an area his school is targeting intensely as it heads into a new school year struggling to meet higher standards.

Yesterday, leaders from the state Department of Education, led by Hamamoto, embarked on what will be a statewide tour of the public schools to discover what is and isn't working in the classroom. Their goal is to be able to prevent more schools from falling under No Child Left Behind's strictest penalties, including "restructuring," an overhaul by the state or outside educational companies.

"The whole idea is how to plan the interventions" so schools can make adequate yearly progress, Hamamoto said, referring to the measure that determines whether enough students are proficient in grade-level math and reading standards.

"Can we catch the schools on the slippery slope before they go down?"

The tour began in three Windward elementary schools: Pu'ohala, Kahalu'u and Wai'ahole, which are all in different stages of restructuring, but have shown signs of promise. Kahalu'u has improved enough to meet the coveted adequate yearly progress goal on last spring's standardized tests. Pu'ohala came close and managed to significantly boost the scores of its disadvantaged students.

The administrators visited classrooms looking for evidence of standards-based instruction. Properly done, "students should know what they are learning and why they are learning it," Hamamoto said.

At Pu'ohala, students could do more than just recite the standards on command. Hamamoto pointed out that even the youngest students could demonstrate higher-level learning as they explained the similarities and differences between two stories they had recently read.

Fourth-graders in the school's Hawaiian Immersion Program were particularly impressive. Not only do they know the state standards, they can explain them in both English and Hawaiian.

Their recital of what they are studying (reading responses) and what they are practicing for (the Hawai'i State Assessment) was almost as passionate as the traditional chant they used to greet visitors to their class, with some students thumping the table for emphasis as they shouted out, "HSA!"

Administrators expected to see more than just a nod at standards-based instruction in the classroom. Essentially, Hama-moto said what she wanted to see were students engaged in classroom work rigorous enough that they have to stretch a little to master it.

In most cases, administrators praised what they saw going on in the classroom, but they also identified problem areas.

Deputy superintendent Clayton Fujie pointed out that the general learner outcomes were posted in a classroom at Kahalu'u, but they were above the chalkboard where they could barely be seen and hadn't been translated from DOE bureaucratese into language students and parents could understand.

Another administrator commented that a classroom teacher hadn't identified the standard she was teaching. "There didn't seem to be a sense of purpose tied to the lesson," he said.

But Hamamoto discussed only the improvement she had seen at Pu'ohala since her visit last year. "I saw a lot more evidence of students identifying why we're doing what we're doing," she said.

The administrators were increasingly impressed with progress in the three schools, with Hamamoto noting how math, especially, is being emphasized. The classrooms were decorated with the children's work interspersed with the standards, and examples of outstanding work.

Wherever they went, administrators greeted the youngsters in the classrooms. Even in the kindergarten room, children responded with a "hello, good morning" — one of the expectations as part of state standards.

"The kindergarten standard is that when you greet them, they greet you back, so you expect them to say hello," Hamamoto said.

A little later Hamamoto leafed through 6-year-old Esther Higa's notebook of colorful drawings done as a math tool, as the child explained how she had made a ladybug with four black dots.

"That's terrific," said the superintendent.

Hamamoto saw first-graders working in groups to learn from one another, working independently, and with their teachers. And she noticed changes in how well children worked together from a year ago.

"This is our process so we know across the state what is happening, so we're all focused on the same mission and vision," she said. "On this second round I see more evidence of the practice of standards-based instruction, more focus on student learning."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com and Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.