As I’ve been visiting schools around the Islands, I’ve been reminded again about the impact that great principals and teachers have in helping students reach successful futures, and why I’m so passionate about School Design, Student Voice, and Teacher Collaboration as organizing approaches to delivering education that matters.

I had a great visit with Farrington’s Teacher Leadership Cadre, profiled here. These teachers understand that in collaborating together they are better at meeting student needs and aspirations than they are on their own.

September is a good time to reflect on how instructional leaders make a difference, during Attendance Awareness Month.

One of the strongest predictors of student success or failure is simply showing up — in other words, being present to learn. Students who miss 15 or more days in a school year struggle to catch up with their peers who make it to class, which over time results in a host of poor outcomes. 

This is a problem we can solve together. State-based leaders in partnership with school-based leaders will initiate and expand effective programs to support students — Whole Child programs for physical/emotional health needs in particular.

School Design plays a role here. Students working on pursuits that interest them, and have relevant application in career, college and community, are more likely to be in school.

Relationships are crucial. All students deserve caring teachers and staff who are looking out for them. Communities are important partners — I’m excited to see districts and schools promote School Every Day, such as KKP’s “Challenge 5” campaign launched this year.

This month, we’ll be releasing 2016-17 absenteeism data for all grade spans along with other key indicators as part of our updated Strive HI System (view an overview of indicators here). These data provide valuable diagnostics in reviewing the effectiveness of our approaches.

The Attendance Works website has great resources if you want to do a community campaign on chronic absence: awareness.attendanceworks.org. Let’s support our families to ensure all students are in school every day!

Dr. Christina M. Kishimoto
SUPERINTENDENT