This commentary is part of a series of articles prepared by Voices of Educators, a nonprofit coalition designed to foster debate and public policy change within Hawai'i's public education system, in partnership with The Advertiser. It appears in Focus on the first Sunday of the month.

Our mission as educators is to graduate students who have the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful in college, in their careers and as citizens in their community.

Toward this end, Hawai'i schools are making great strides. While new technology has enriched the learning experiences of our students, it has also provided Hawai'i's teachers and administrators with the means to access educational research, professional development and student performance data to improve teaching and learning.

Our high schools are continually striving to improve their programs and are investing heavily in high-school redesign. Hawai'i high schools have redefined their organizational goals and structures to create programs, courses and support systems to meet the learning needs of students and to build professional learning communities.

Examples of this are readily seen in the implementation of Career Pathways courses in natural resources, health services, business, public and human services, industrial and engineering technology, and arts and communications; the establishment of academies, multi-disciplinary teams, intra-department teams and smaller learning communities; and continued implementation of career-based programs such as Community Quest, Capstone courses and School-to-Work that incorporate the acquisition of job skills and positive work ethics through internships.

More recently, programs that specifically focus on college preparation are being implemented in our high schools. First implemented by James Campbell High School, AVID (Advanced Via Individual Determination) provides instruction on specific strategies in writing, inquiry, collaborative work groups and reading. Another easily implemented strategy is Cornell Note Taking, which focuses on skills that all students should acquire to be successful. Other notable programs at Campbell include the International Baccalaureate and 21st Century Classrooms that use advanced technology in the classroom.

Waiäkea High School is a leading example of senior project implementation through its Smaller Learning Communities and Career-Based Academies (Career Pathways). During the 2008–2009 school year, 251 Waiäkea High seniors, or 92 percent of the graduating class, completed a senior project, which included writing a research paper, participating in internships, job shadowing, community service and an oral presentation before a panel. Waiäkea High School's senior project internships are supported by the Huiana Internship Program sponsored by the Hawai'i Island Workforce and Economic Development 'Ohana. More than 60 Hawai'i island businesses in every Career Pathway are represented in the Huiana Internship Program.

Classroom instruction continues to be the primary focal point at our high schools. Utilizing curricula that are rigorous and relevant and effective practices such as project-based learning, actively engaging students in creative thinking/problem-solving for real-world applications, developing leadership and teamwork, monitoring student progress and using data to make informed instructional decisions are promoted by school leaders as essential in achieving academic success for all students.

Hawai'i schools will continue to make progress and improve school programs. However, we face challenges in education that are not so easily resolved. Our incapacity to modify the design of our classrooms to create student-centered learning environments that maximize the use of new technology and to present instruction in relevant contexts that are motivating to all students, including those students who are at-risk, are barriers to student success in the 21st century.

At the same time, we are realizing that our students are different. Christine Sorensen of the University of Hawai'i-Mänoa vividly described the mindset of today's learner in her fall article, "New school of thought: It's not education as usual in the digital era" (Advertiser, Aug. 2). She stated, "They are connected, mobile, social, instantaneous and entertainment-oriented. They have redefined expertise as collective knowledge, often made up of small, cumulative contributions (think Wikipedia). For them knowledge is open, collaborative, accessible, often from the bottom up, and frequently presented in multimedia."

While we are making great strides in preparing students who are college and career ready, we must increase our efforts to adapt our schools and our teaching in ways that address these new learners.

Given the abilities of today's students and their affinity to technology, we cannot ignore the urgent need for change in our thinking and approaches to educating Hawai'i's youth.

Voices of Educators comprises some of Hawai'i's top education experts, including: Liz Chun, executive director of Good Beginnings Alliance; Patricia Hamamoto, superintendent of the Department of Education; Christine Sorensen, dean of the University of Hawai'i's College of Education; Donald B. Young, Hawaii Educational Policy Center; Wil Okabe from the Hawaii State Teachers Association; Sharon Mahoe of the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board; Francine Honda, HGEA Unit 6 president; and Robert Witt of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. Visit their Web site at www.hawaii.edu/voice.