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What happens when a strong principal, involved parents and motivated teachers come together?

is a good example. The school has been selected as one of 15 model high schools for 2011 by the , an educational advocacy and consulting company. The schools will share their best practices at the 19th annual this June in Nashville. The conference attracts thousands of educators and is widely considered the nation’s leading education reform event.

It’s not the first time Moanalua has grabbed the spotlight in recent years.

“We’ve had so many national and state awards this year that it would take me half an hour to go through all of them,” Principal Darrel Galera said at a May 10 school community council meeting. He wasn’t bragging — he merely meant it as a compliment to his students.

Moanalua faculty, students and parents say the secrets to their success are a strong principal, an unusually collaborative culture, a focus on constant professional development and an outside-the-box approach to the classroom.

Collaboration Is Key

Everyone seems to want to credit someone else for the school’s success.

The teachers attribute it to Galera’s visionary leadership. Galera attributes it to a collaborative faculty and involved parents. The students say it’s the personal attention they get from their teachers and a wealth of extracurricular opportunities.

“I think it’s a collaboration that started with the principal,” said Chris Eng, a parent who still serves on the school community council even though his children have already graduated. “He had a vision for what this school could be, and everyone has caught that vision. It’s been an exciting time.”

“I’m a (geographic exception) parent, so I asked for my kids to come here,” said Julie Fujiwara, a mom from Kaneohe. “All of the programs here are exemplary, and I was just impressed with everything — the academics, the commitment, the support, and the fact that they are always looking for ways to improve.”

Committed to Improving People

The school’s dedication to continuous improvement is driven by Galera, said Wray Jose, a U.S. history and government teacher. One thing Galera does well is provide the tools, resources and support that teachers need in order to develop professionally.

“A good leader helps, and Darrel Galera is great at that,” said Jose.

Moanalua ramped up its focus on professional development in 2001. Galera actively sought educational speakers and conferences for his teachers. He assembled a dedicated professional development team that began walking teachers through new strategies. That year Galera also began requiring his faculty to share their best new methods in writing and in digital presentations at an annual conference for fellow educators from around the state.

“Incentives like that force you to get involved, to be more hands-on and pay closer attention to what you’re doing in the classroom,” said Jose.

For the last 10 years, the Moanalua High School Professional Development Conference has driven improvements at Moanalua and all over the state. It has been called by at least one Nanakuli teacher, “Hawaii’s best professional development opportunity for teachers all year, period.”

Not Afraid of ‘Stretch Learning’

The school’s video presentation for the Model Schools Conference features a high-energy campus bustling with activities from academic competitions to athletic events and orchestra concerts.

Senior Anna Pidong said that the extracurricular activities provided her with opportunities to take learning to the next level — what she calls ‘stretch learning.’ She has used her involvement on the mock trial and robotics teams to synthesize concepts from her classes.

“Especially in mock trial, you are really applying what you learn and bringing it all together,” she said.

But that synthesis — the part of school that makes learning relevant to students — isn’t limited to extracurricular activities. It pervades Moanalua’s classrooms, too. Although the high school consistently does well on annual assessments, they are never the focus.

“In our classes, you don’t do just book work, but you’re doing all these activities and applying your unique experiences to what you learn,” Pidong explained. “The teachers develop quality relationships with us and teach for a bunch of different learning styles.”

Embracing Data and Technology

A model school doesn’t become a model school overnight, but two new initiatives this year may have helped give Moanalua a boost in the Model Schools competition: Data teams and a 21st-Century technology team.

Data teams review data derived from student scores on common course assessments. They use the information to identify strengths and weaknesses, and then develop strategies for addressing students’ needs, said Jose.

The 21st-Century technology team is a group of faculty members who wanted to integrate technology into the teaching and learning experience, said Melissa Goo, a science teacher and chairwoman of the school community council.

As a result of the team’s efforts, the school has 30 on campus and has fully implemented an online grade book that students and their parents can access anytime. The school also upgraded its online system so it’s more interactive.

“In doing that, we’re really taking the classroom outside of the classroom,” Goo said — a consistent theme at Moanalua.

Even though they may never be able to narrow down which people and programs should get the credit for it, almost all the school’s stakeholders agree on one thing: Moanalua is one of the premier high schools in Hawaii and the nation.

“Wow, this is one terrific school,” said Eng.