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A new school model on the Waianae Coast incorporates large class sizes in which students make most of their own assignments.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, after only a year, Hawaii’s first New Tech High academies at Waianae High School and Nanakuli Intermediate and High School show promise of solving some of education’s most persistent problems.

“We are exactly where we should be after a year,” said Leeward Complex Area Superintendent Lisa DeLong in a report to the former elected Hawaii State Board of Education on April 7. Teacher Maggie Desmond and some students from Nanakuli also testified on behalf of the model.

The model, designed and guided by the nationwide , relies on project-based learning paired with technology and turns upside down the traditional school model of one teacher lecturing at the front of the classroom. Think Waianae’s Searider Productions Academy — which is in fact now a part of the 62-school national New Tech Network.

Both Nanakuli and Waianae are applying the model with cohorts in this year’s freshman classes, together enrolling about 300 students. The schools have a large low-income student population and have struggled lifting student achievement. At a time of fiscal austerity, the possibility of doing more without having to add more teachers is enticing.

Desmond said that even though Nanakuli’s 155 New Tech students have to wear uniforms and spend seven more hours in school per week than the other students, they seem to enjoy being there. The New Tech teachers volunteered to spend that extra time with the students and received an exception to the teachers’ contract, which limits the number of minutes they can spend instructing each week.

The students benefit from a greater amount of self-examination, self-direction, teamwork and analysis. Teachers benefit from the amount of time and stress they are spared by not having to assign every step-by-step task. The school system benefits by using its personnel more efficiently. A team of two teachers can easily direct an entire classroom of 60 students in the new tech model.

Not Your Typical Schoolwork

Desmond described a typical project cycle in her New Tech global studies class.

• The students are divided into groups in which they each have defined roles.
• The teachers distribute a document containing a description of the finished project and what it should contain. An elaborate rubric tells them what it means to be proficient and excel in that particular assignment.
• The groups look at the assignment, then make lists of what they already know and what they need to know or learn in order to complete the project.
• Group members develop daily objectives for completing the assignment and divide the labor among themselves. Students who don’t pull their weight get “fired” by their group and have to complete the project alone.
• If the students determine they need to learn a certain skill, they may attend a seminar on that subject, but they have to request the seminar first.
• If a workshop is presented and they already know the skill, they just don’t attend.
• The groups present their projects and then reflect on how to improve for next time.

“They’re developing thought processes, developing daily tasks and objectives, and they are driving the learning process,” Desmond said. “I used to be the one doing all of that work. But these students are much more self-directed and engaged than in a traditional classroom.”

A one-to-one laptop-to-student ratio is mandatory for fostering this type of learning environment, she said, so students can research and put together presentations even when they aren’t at school.

DeLong said that with the privilege of more freedom and technological resources, comes more responsibility for the students. They are now required to take initiative on their assignments.

“With the seminars, they have to ask for what they need,” she explained. “It’s a little harder, but the kids are getting it.”

One New Tech student from Nanakuli told board members that although she didn’t work well in groups at first (she used to get into a lot of fights), the unique model has forced her to overcome her “anger issues.”

Another ninth-grader said he hopes other students try the New Tech academy.

“I hope students take the opportunity seriously, because I do think it can help them with their futures,” he said.

Although the schools will not have a complete set of data to demonstrate the program’s success until the end of summer, anecdotal evidence shows that attendance is better and school culture is improved.

“They are predicting that 100 percent of the kids will be promoted at the end of the year,” DeLong said.

Regardless of short-term results, the New Tech model is a longer-term arrangement. The schools are committed to it for at least five years, DeLong said, at a cost of about $500,000 per school for the duration. The cost includes training for the teachers and regular on-site visits from New Tech coaches. Kamehameha Schools picked up the tab for Nanakuli and Waianae.

New Tech on the Leeward Coast happens with the support of several similar public-private partnerships — a concept embraced by several of Hawaii’s new Board of Education appointees. The Nanakuli-Waianae Complex has partnerships with:

• Hawaii P-20 Initiative
• The Harold K.L. Castle Foundation
• Jeffrey R. Stone and Family
• Kamehameha Schools Career & Post High Counseling
• Kamehameha Schools Ka Pua Initiative
• Leeward Community College
• University of Hawaii Manoa School of Hawaiian Knowledge
• UHM Office of Student Services
• UH West Oahu

“The real benefit to students is (New Tech) provides relevant, project-based education focused on the kind of 21st-century skills critical to college and career success,” said Shawn Kanaiaupuni, who is in charge of Kamehameha Schools’ public education support. She explained that the entire community ultimately benefits from the skills New Tech kids are learning. “They’re doing critical thinking, problem-solving, oral and written communication, collaboration and community engagement.”