Pihana Nā Mamo
2005 marked the end of the third 5-year cycle for Pihana Nā Mamo: The Native Hawaiian Special Education Project. CRDG joined the project in its latest cycle, beginning a collaborative effort with the Hawai‘i Department of Education (HDOE) in 2000. In 2007 the project is operating on a no-cost extension.
Morris Lai serves as the principal investigator with Gloria Kishi (HDOE) and Hugh Dunn as project directors. Pihana Nā Mamo works with Hawai‘i schools to identify, develop, and implement effective programs to meet the unique needs of Native Hawaiian students. Its mission is to improve educational outcomes of Kâ12 special needs students of Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian ancestry. To do this, the project has focused on reading and culturally appropriate support systems, including parent and community participation and new curriculum materials.
The project has published the first six titles in the Ka Wana series, a set of books on Native Hawaiian cultural practices and traditions written by Malcolm Nāea Chun.
Heluhelu, the Pihana reading component, had excellent outcomes in 2004, when 13 out of 16 Pihana elementary schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards for reading, and 2 other Pihana elementary schools met AYP in Grade 3 or Grade 5. A recent newspaper article featured four formerly struggling schools that did well in 2005, all of which were Pihana schools.
Students in the Kāko‘o (student support) component of Pihana had a high school graduation rate exceeding normative expectations. In 2004â2005 the Makua Hānai (parent involvement) component of Pihana worked with 1,075 students and 577 families from 13 schools.
As this grant cycle winds down, CRDG and the DOE will continue their work with Native Hawaiian children and families under two new grants awarded in 2005. Kāko‘o Piha, a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, through the Native Hawaiian Education Act, will address the needs of at-risk Native Hawaiian secondary students. Systematic mentoring and transition planning, intensive academic support, and pro-social skills training will be used to help students make a successful transition from middle school to high school and from high school to post-high school employment or higher education. Nā Lama Heluhelu, a second three-year grant, also from the U.S. Department of Education, continues work in the other major focus area of the project: helping beginning readers. Focusing on students in kindergarten through Grade 3 in 12 beacon schools, the project will implement a number of strategies to help the school communities make reading a priority. This project will work with approximately 3,000 students, 300 teachers, and 1,000 parents.