A decade ago, graduating seniors at James Campbell High School earned a combined total of about $600,000 worth of college scholarships. The 'Ewa high school's seniors now rake in nearly $6 million in scholarships and grants a year.

That is just one sign of a dramatic turnaround in academic achievement at the campus — once known for its rough-and-tumble environment — because of a renewed emphasis on a "college-going culture," teachers and administrators say.

Hundreds of students now participate in challenging College Board Advanced Placement courses and exams, which earn students college credit. Campbell can fill a three-story building with students on any given weekend for SAT college entrance exams.

And this fall, Campbell became the first public school in the state to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, an elite college preparatory curriculum focusing on internationalism.

"Ten years ago we had the highest dropout rates in the state," Campbell Principal Gail Awakuni said.

The transformation, she said, is a result of increased expectations. It's not enough for students to just pass, she said. Students have to be challenged.

"That's the reason I was so interested in International Baccalaureate — the high quality, rigorous curriculum, as well as the staff development for teachers," she said.

"It's the most rigorous curriculum being offered. It'll bring the whole school up."

Awakuni led the three-year effort to become one of about 2,000 schools in 182 countries to offer the international curriculum. She's received praise from DOE officials, who say she's a role model for school administrators in the school system and throughout the country. In 2004, Awakuni was named National Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

The International Baccalaureate program is known worldwide as a way to help students compete in a global society, helping them understand and appreciate diverse cultures. Students are encouraged to become "transdisciplinary" through exposure to rigorous coursework in math, sciences, humanities, arts, foreign language and literature, all tied together with an emphasis on globalism.

Only one other school in Hawai'i — Mid-Pacific Institute — offers the IB Diploma Programme.

About 25 students are working toward the elite diploma at Campbell, while about 25 more students are working toward an IB certificate.

Those numbers may seem small, considering Campbell has an enrollment of nearly 2,500 students. But Awakuni said the program affects academics across the entire campus.

"When you raise the bar, everybody benefits," she said.

'NOT JUST OUR TOP KIDS'

Teachers are required to participate in additional training from International Baccalaureate to teach the special courses from a global perspective.

Awakuni said those teachers can use the skills learned in their other classes and also teach other teachers how to push their students.

"For a lot of these teachers, they only teach one class of IB. The rest of their classes are mainstream classes. What they get from the training can be used in all of those other classes," Awakuni said.

Implemented in the fall, Campbell is barely into its first year as an IB school. So it's likely that the number of students participating in the program will increase over the next few years, teachers say.

"If our growth in Advanced Placement is any indication, there's absolutely an opportunity for growth in IB," English teacher Julie Do said. She's also the IB coordinator at Campbell.

In the year 2000, Campbell administered only 25 AP exams to its students. The College Board AP courses and exams are challenging ways for students to learn college preparation or even earn college credit.

This year, some 263 students are taking 471 exams in core subject areas, Do said.

"These are not just our top kids," she said.

"Something like 29 percent of these students qualify for free or reduced lunch."

Do said Campbell stresses an open enrollment policy in all of its Advanced Placement classes. There are no requirements to participate, just a willingness to work hard, she said.

"The expectation here is that everyone goes to college," she said.

Aysia Ripani, a 16-year-old junior at Campbell, is one of the 25 students working toward an IB diploma. She's enrolled in an IB film course, IB Spanish, IB standard level math, IB history and IB English.

Ripani said more is expected from her as an IB student than when she was taking general courses.

"The teachers really encourage us to do more work than we would normally be used to," Ripani said.

As part of the IB requirements, students must also participate in community service projects, Ripani said. She's been volunteering as a volleyball coaching assistant at her former elementary school, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School on North Road in 'Ewa.

She and other students from her media class have helped film neighborhood board meetings as well.

NCLB SCORES IMPROVE

Campbell also has made strong gains in its test scores under the No Child Left Behind legislation.

In 2007, Campbell's math scores on the Hawai'i State Assessment tripled from the previous year. While the school still faces sanctions under NCLB, this year Campbell exceeded requirements for math and reading scores but missed Adequate Yearly Progress in the special needs category.

"We were the lowest in the state; now we're in the upper one-third," Awakuni said.

Awakuni said Campbell hasn't been able to create change on its own. It's been a community-wide effort extending all the way down to the elementary school level, she said.

"In order for kids to be prepared for the rigorous courses, we had to backward map with the intermediate and elementary schools," she said.

With Campbell leading the way in International Baccalaureate, other schools in 'Ewa have begun to explore the program as well.

Iroquois Point Elementary School is in candidate school status for the IB Primary Years program. The school will work over the next two years to become an authorized IB location.

"As a school, we unanimously agree that this will take our school to a higher level," Iroquois Point Principal Heidi Armstrong said.

Nearby Keone'ula Elementary is also exploring the IB program, officials said.

Daniel Hamada, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and student support, said Campbell's transformation should be examined and used as a model for the rest of Hawai'i's public school system.

"What Campbell has done is invigorated student interest," Hamada said. "It is definitely a model school for our state. It is one of the schools that is showing us the way, that it can be done."