The Advertiser's Community Editorial Board recently met with state Superintendent of Schools Pat Hamamoto to talk about public education in Hawai'i. Here are excerpts from that discussion:

Leslie Kahihikolo: Most of the time, what we read in the newspaper about our school system is negative. What do you think the Board of Education is doing right and what is working well?

Pat Hamamoto: There are a lot of good things happening. I was out at the Waipahu Complex a while back, and they are working on programs for immigrant parents to help with parenting skills and with literacy so that when the child comes home there is some connection to school. These are not things that may make the front page; not stuff that maybe has all the bells and the whistles. But when you are in a community where literacy may not be at the forefront because you don't have the artifacts of literacy at your house, anything that you can do to help makes a difference.

Jennifer Shishido: Accountability is a big issue with me. To me, there is not enough emphasis on parents' accountability. What can the ordinary parent do to make sure that they're positively helping their school instead of detracting from the learning experience?

Hamamoto: Two years ago, an Act 51 parent project came up. And the Honolulu district primarily is the lead on this, but it's gone on to the entire state. What they do is provide parenting skills for parents who are experiencing frustration or hard times or challenges with their children growing up. And in our last meeting, what was very clear was that many of our younger parents don't have the parenting skills that you and I may have, for whatever reason. What we've been overlooking is what kind of programs can we have for parents to help them with parenting skills, primarily in the areas of education, and how to help their child. And that, then, will help close that loop so that they know that there is consistency in the child's environment both in school and out of school.

Jeff Merz: From your perspective, structurally, is the statewide school system designed in the most efficient or the most appropriate way, or would it be more appropriate to break it down into more bite-sized pieces?

Hamamoto: There is an assumption that because we take care of all the schools and we only draw down from a single funding source, which is the state revenue, that there is equity in what every school gets. Perhaps the assumptions are wrong, because you have small schools and large schools, and when you start to give a small school the same amount that you give a large school, the resources don't go as far in a large school.

Or if you take a look at Kaua'i or rural schools, if we repair a school on Kaua'i, the same repair on O'ahu will cost less because (Kaua'i) is away from the market and you've got to pay for the shipping and the gasoline and everything else to make that repair on Kaua'i.

Are we more efficient? In some instances, the answer is yes, because we have economies of scale.

Is it more cumbersome? Sometimes the answer is yes.

Helen Nakano: I am very interested in the charter schools and what they're doing, since my experience with Halau Ku Mana. I was so impressed with what the teachers were doing, and what the students were doing. I watched them talk about pono, and values, and taking responsibility. There are a lot of little inequities, and they are being kicked out of their present location. They are scrambling and looking for someplace to teach next year. There are so many things that they don't get from the "system." But they are still within the DOE, right?

Hamamoto: No they are not.

Nakano: I feel they are doing a lot of good. Why all the inequities?

Hamamoto: I happen to be a fan of Halau Ku Mana. I think they have done an excellent job in blending the western practices and educational strategies with the Hawaiian culture and values. If we could get a lot of our schools doing that, I think a lot of kids would feel comfortable with going to school. So I'm very aware of what they've been doing, and I've visited them and go to their graduation at the end of the year.

The charter schools are not part of the Department of Education. By law, they are required to take part in the Hawai'i state assessment because of No Child Left Behind. But the rules and regulations regarding policy for the DOE are not applicable to the charter schools.

Charter school teachers are not part of the DOE. They're part of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, because the law says in Hawai'i when you work in government, public school is government, you need to belong to a bargaining unit. So they belong by law to the teachers union. But they're not part of the DOE jurisdiction or authority.

They are under the Board of Education and their own local school board. It is unfortunate for them, in the sense that the charter school law does not include facilities. So that part is difficult. They have their own budget. So the amount of money they get is based on last year's expenditures that the department spent on the children.

Nakano: I feel that the assessment standards, the performance standards for the kids, are not high enough. Are there plans to improve them?

Hamamoto: We're on the third iteration of the Hawai'i competence performance standards along with our performance measures. The challenge becomes having the teachers instruct standards-based education, which is very different from when I went to school and when you went to school. Back then, it was about what the teacher thought was important. Now it's what the child needs to know to meet the standards. Believe me, it is a total different way of teaching. It's knowing your student, knowing your data, knowing how to ensure along the way and making sure that you know what you are supposed to be doing, and then planning.

It's a work in progress. Part of that progress is to get the teaching force to do their instruction in a standards-based environment, which means standards-based teaching. Many have moved over; many may never get there. But right now, we have done an evaluation of the standards, and we need to just hold them in place until we start to move everyone up. But we're not letting them go.

Kahihikolo: We talked about helping parents to do a better job with their children to succeed in school. One of the things that I've been frustrated with is that I have a desire to help my school, that my kids go to, and to offer my services. I talked to the teachers, and I say I can help you here, help you there. But there doesn't seem to be an interest in bringing parents in and allowing them to help within the schools. They are desperate for resources, desperate for help, but when help is offered, they don't take you up on it. And I would love to do something more than just bake some cookies for teachers. What's the mentality there?

Hamamoto: Let me see if I can put this in perspective. They want your help; perhaps they don't know how to channel your energy and your help. Because it takes a lot of time for a school to sit down and say, this is what we want, and if you come in, we would train you ... sometimes it's easier to do it yourself.

The reality is we don't have enough time or resources to do it ourselves. So one of our major goals is how do we increase our volunteers, how do we increase our parent involvement, and how do we increase our community partnerships?

We have a project coming up, a pilot with three or four schools in the central district. We're working on a database that connects volunteers with schools for common projects. It's about helping schools find niches for volunteers.

The reality is we need these partnerships; we can't do it without these partnerships.