Noelani Elementary
Principal: Rochelle Mahoe, Ph.D.
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."
— B.B. King
When you look at your SY13-14 results, what are you most proud of?
Principal Mahoe: Reflecting on our results, we are most proud of the collective efforts of faculty and staff. Together, the faculty and staff worked to understand the different state initiatives, and how to use them to strengthen our existing practices. They displayed great attitude and grit.
What strategies, initiatives, efforts, under way at your school helped contribute to or are critical to your success?
Principal Mahoe: For SY 2013-2014, there were two main school-wide areas of focus. They were attendance and mathematics instruction. The teachers and staff worked diligently to curb both tardies and absences. We gave monthly reports to parents and also added quarterly recognitions for Perfect Attendance.
In addition, teachers participated in both professional development trainings and professional conversations about math instruction. Teachers also utilized the data team process to analyze student work and inform instruction.
What are you focused on this year (SY 2014-15) to continue your success?
Principal Mahoe: This year, we continue to focus on math instruction but have broadened our scope to include the development of students’ higher-level/critical thinking skills. While strategies are explicitly taught in math, we are helping students recognize that similar strategies can also be applied across all content areas.
Click here to view school profile, Strive HI reports.
About Recognition Schools
Schools in the Department's Strive HI System achieve "Recognition" — the highest step — based on their status as either a
High-Performing or
High-Progress school. Federal parameters limit Recognition to no more than 5 percent of all Hawaii schools.
High- Performing School criteria
- Meet or exceed annual targets for all student groups
- Graduation rates in top 10 percent of all high schools
- Current year gap rate less than 30 percent
High-Progress School criteria
- Increases of 15 percent or higher of all students’ proficiency over three years
- Highest increases in grad rates (top 10 percent of schools with increase of 10 percent over three years)
- Reduction of gap between High-Needs and Non-High Need student groups by 10 percent or more over 3 years (cannot meet gap reduction by lowering performance of non-High Needs group.)
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