Profile of a School

Prince David Kawananakoa Middle School

I worked at Kawananakoa School for three years. In researching the surrounding area, I discovered it to be rich in culture, history and environmental significance that could lend itself well to place based curriculum.  Because I'm on sabbatical, and  I'm not in a classroom, until January, I chose to profile Kawananakoa Middle.

Born in 1868, in Honolulu, Prince David La'amea Kahalepouli Kinoiki Kawananakoa was in line of succession to the throne when the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown. It is for him that Kawananakoa Middle School is named.

Prince David Kawananakoa

Kawananakoa School was built in 1927, in the principle ahpua'a of Honolulu, Nuuanu. The ahupua'a runs from the Nuuanu Pali to Honolulu Harbor and is flanked on the west by Alewa Heights with Pauoa to the east. KMS sits at the foot of the Pali Highway, just mauka of downtown Honolulu. 

Most school children have seen pictures of Hawaiian warriors leaping to their deaths from the Nuuanu Pali (cliffs). The legendary battle of 1795, where the warriors of King Kamehameha defeated the forces of Oahu's King Kalanikupule, is what Nuuanu is most known for. However, there is also a wealth of molelo surrounding the area; stories of night marchers, guardian dogs, and menehune who once lived there.  Nuuanu is also home of many  heiau,  hidden in the lush tropical undergrowth along with guardian stones that once accepted the piko (belly button) of newborns and whose job it was to protect travelers crossing the mountains. Queen Emma's Summer Palace is there. It is an environment of great historical, cultural and ecological value, that could be a strong asset to Kawananakoa School.

Menehune Heiau

The campus of KMS is adjacent to a grassy public park on one side, in contrast to the busy freeway that fronts the complex. Students who attend Kawananakoa primarily come from working class neighborhoods, Pauoa, Kalihi and the downtown/Chinatown area. 57% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. According to website school digger.com, of the 850 students who attended KMS last year, 508 where of Asian ethnicity, 204, Pacific Islanders, 67 mixed race, 38 Hispanic, 23 white, 5 Black and 5 Native American. Around 150 of those students would be considered ELL (English Language Learners).

ELL Students 

While the student body seem to get along, as a whole,
there is a marked social divide between local Asian kids, Asian immigrant

 students and Pacific Islanders. In the classroom the cultural and language differences appear in behaviors, work habits, types of prior knowledge and test scores. Many teachers still adhere solely to "direct instruction" and have not yet embraced differentiated instruction nor have they had the opportunity to explore place/community based education practices, both of which could help to level the playing field, for this diverse population of students by providing genuine experiential learning.

Kawananakoa School has been rated 17th among 79 Hawaiian middle schools according to statewide HSA assessments (2013). KMS is also known to have an excellent music and drama program. Currently a new state of the art auditorium is being built with 1.76 million in funds set aside by legislature. The auditorium will be, not only for school, but also community use.

Of note, is a 2013 grant awarded KMS to develop a native Hawaiian Arboretum on campus. Planting trees with the students and constructing a garden funded by the Kokua Foundation were some of the year's highlights. Given Kawananakoa's geographical location, its community and legislative support, it seems an ideal place to implement place and community based learning practices.

The specific teaching and learning space of my classroom, at the time, was somewhat unaffected by the rest of the school culture, because for the first two years I had primarily ELL students. They came to my room on break and at recess and dropped by after school. It was rewarding in a sense to know they felt at home there, but also indicative of how out of place they felt in most of their other classes where busy teachers were too overwhelmed to accommodate them. At the time, I got to create a curriculum of language acquisition drawing on my GLAD experience and using science, math and social studies content as a platform for teaching ELL and ELA. It was a really fun and productive time for my students and me. Please find a little movie, I have reposted on You Tube, of some of the things we did, at this youtube address:  https://youtu.be/sboEWkUWIDI