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Our partnership with our military ‘ohana has never been stronger. This was not something we could confidently say even just a few years ago.

It boils down to our shift to rigor, relevance, and relationships.

The rigor and relevance have been documented at length in recent years — we set a higher bar with tougher Common Core standards that benefitted our keiki including military students, who could move here and hit the ground running as they were more likely to be learning to the shared standards of other states and territories. We will see similar benefits with the shift to Next Generation Science Standards.

The career and college readiness focus reflected in our Strategic Plan resonates with military families; many of our military-impacted schools (nearly four dozen) are showing robust growth in these metrics — Radford High was cited for its results in the latest College & Career Readiness Indicators report.

As important as the rigor and relevance have been, however, building and improving relationships may be making the greatest impact. Caring for kids is most important.

A theme during this school year has been focusing on transitions — making sure students are supported with the right resources when they need them. This focus looks at common trouble spots, such as the 9th grade transition, but considers all transitions — grade to grade, school to school, any significant “move.” Military children are vulnerable to academic upheaval when their emotional worlds are challenged by PCS’ing to a new state, or having a parent deployed or injured in the line of duty.

Some examples of schools making military keiki part of the ‘ohana: Radford and Leilehua high schools have created world-class transition centers to help students learn about life in Hawai‘i and make friends, and Mokapu Elementary winning hearts and minds with its one-on-one focus. Don’t take my word for it, you can hear it from the students themselves — see videos on our military page.

We all can do more to help our military keiki become part of our ‘ohana. April is National Month of the Military Child. In celebration, the Joint Venture Education Forum is encouraging everyone to wear purple on April 21 as a visible way to salute and honor our military children. Please join us!

Kathryn Matayoshi
Superintendent