Early Learning/Pre-K

Investing in Pre-K and Beyond

"The Thinking Classroom" - Putting the Ideas of Project Zero into Action

We are initiating this project with charter schools to create a strong pre-K to grade 3 charter school network that is grounded in high-quality instruction and thinking practices. We will diligently work to add a Hawa`i focus to the visible thinking and learning moves that make up the core of this project.

For more than fifty years, Project Zero has pioneered research that examines key facets of human potential such as intelligence, creativity, thinking and understanding.

What kinds of learning experiences lead to deep understanding for students? How can teachers and leaders create classrooms and schools that feel engaging for students and adults?

What can school be like for students when teachers are committed to exploring and reflecting upon big ideas in teaching and learning?

Those at Project Zero continually examine how educators can design experiences for all learners within a community that are inspiring, engaging and purposeful.

Now, over the next three school years (SY 2020-2021 & 2021-2022 & 2022-2023), a team of researchers and longtime collaborators of Project Zero will venture into a joint professional learning experience with school-based teams within the Hawai`i State Public Charter School Commission. With a firm belief that learning unfolds in collaboration with others, participants will:

• experience and take actions around big questions at the heart of teaching and learning.
• have time and space to collaborate with others from their own schools, as well as across the state.
• think deeply about what we can do to make a powerful impact on who students become as thinkers and learners as a result of our efforts and stewardship.

Expectations for The Thinking Classroom

Thinking Classroom elements are neither a curriculum to follow nor a program to implement. Rather, these ideas engage educators in critical questions that lead teachers and school leaders into subtle, yet profound actions that will help students' growth and development. While all participating schools will explore core ideas, each school will be supported to adapt these ideas in ways that make sense for its own unique context.

Participating schools can look forward to taking concrete steps and carrying out specific actions to enhance student learning. These actions will include the use of visible thinking practices across classroom settings, creating a system of teacher support within the school that leads to effective instructional moves in classrooms, and ongoing reflection on student learning, growth and achievement as a result of teachers and school leaders engaging within the ideas of this project.

The Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission is Now Accepting Applications for Pre-K only Charter Schools

July 13, 2023 - The Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission is now accepting applications for Pre-K-only Charter Schools who have an established early learning program. These stand alone pre-K programs must follow Section 302D-39 Hawaii Revised Statutes serving three- and four-year-old students.

The Commission is committed to authorizing high quality public prekindergarten-only charter schools throughout the state that will contribute meaningfully to Hawaii's public early learning system.

The Hawai’i State Public Charter School Commission adopted the public prekindergarten-only charter school 2023 application process at the May 25, 2023 General Business Meeting.

Here is the link to the 2023 Application Packet

The Commission will hold an application orientation on July 18, 2023, 1:00 p.m. Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83412583244?pwd=Nzcza2dCNDlNTUtXU09LcENjb2Q4Zz09

Subscribe to the Applications Listserv

Please contact the Applications team at applications@spcsc.hawaii.gov to receive a ShareFile account for your application, or if you have any questions or concerns.

Hawaiʻi Public Pre-K Maintains High-Quality Classrooms
One of Only Five States to Achieve 10 out of 10 Quality Standards for State-Funded Public Preschools

(Link to NIEER video story)

HONOLULU, HI – The Executive Office on Early Learning and the Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission’s prekindergarten programs were recognized for meeting 10 of the 10 high quality standard benchmarks identified by the National Institute for Early Education and Research (NIEER). The national ranking for these benchmarks is part of NIEER’s annual State Preschool Yearbook that was released Wednesday. Hawaiʻi is one of only five states to meet all 10 benchmarks.

SPCSC Interim Executive Director PJ Foehr said, "We are proud of the work our team has done in helping to create high-quality early learning opportunities for Hawaiʻi's families. From our beginning with the Preschool Development Grant, through our brief partnership with EOEL to our statutorily approved Charter School Early Learning Program, our team has worked tirelessly to support early learning classrooms and the staff that show up everyday to provide instruction for our littlest students. This NIEER report is a reflection of the efforts of many people across the state of Hawaiʻi. We look forward to continuing this work and being an active participant in the important work of early childhood education!"

“We are proud of the EOEL Public Prekindergarten Program and continued achievement of 10 out of 10 quality standard benchmarks. The ability to do this is a testament to the partnerships we continue to maintain and build with Department of Education schools and educators, with UH Mānoa College of Education, with the State Legislature and more,” said EOEL Director Yuuko Arikawa-Cross. “Our office continues to prioritize our collective work in fostering each child’s optimal growth and learning by ensuring that our educators, families, and most importantly, students are supported, especially during a time when Hawaiʻi’s vision for expanded access to early learning opportunities comes to fruition.”

Lt. Governor Sylvia Luke has made early learning one of her office priorities and leads the state’s preschool expansion plan, Ready Keiki. “I’m proud of the charter and public preschools across our state for their steadfast commitment to helping our keiki thrive,” said Luke. “This is truly a huge win as we continue prioritizing preschool expansion so that all three- and four-year-olds in Hawaiʻi have the support they need to grow and succeed.”


WHAT’S NEW

In the 2021-2022 school year, most Hawaiʻi State Public Charter Schools elected to enroll their pre-K classrooms to their enrollment capacity and provided flexibility in the use of virtual instruction as needed due to COVID-19. In-person instruction, though, predominated throughout the year. For EOEL classrooms, all were at reduced capacity during the 2021-2022 school year and all offered in-person instruction exclusively.

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature, through Act 257, Sessions Laws of Hawaiʻi 2022, has appropriated $200 million for the School Facilities Authority to add or expand access to prekindergarten for eligible children across the state for the fiscal year 2022-2023. In January 2023, Hawaiʻi was awarded a federal Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B–5) renewal grant for $6.6 million. The University of Hawaiʻi Systems is the lead in this grant.


BACKGROUND

In Hawaiʻi, the Executive Office on Early Learning (EOEL) Public Prekindergarten Program serves four-year-old children, with priority given to students considered to be “at-risk,” including those from families at 300% or below of the Federal Poverty Level. The EOEL Public Prekindergarten Program is required to operate on the same schedule as public elementary schools, providing services for 1,080 hours a year.

Beginning in SY 2020-2021, through Act 46, SLH 2020, the legislature gave statutory authority to the State Public Charter School Commission to administer the early learning program in charter schools. Act 46, SLH 2020 also changed the eligibility criteria to include both three- and four-year-old children. No other priority categories were defined. Likewise, the early learning programs in charter schools are required to operate on the same schedule as their K-6 students.

State-funded public preschool partially recovered last year from the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic nationally, and in Hawaiʻi. More importantly, Hawaiʻi now has a plan to serve all three- and four-year-olds by 2032. Eleven new classrooms are planned for 2023 and an additional 80 new classrooms are planned for 2024. Hawaiʻi is one of several states addressing longstanding problems in early education across the country that have persisted as preschool access remained below pre-pandemic levels, funding was inadequate, and quality standards failed to improve, according to the 2022 State of Preschool Yearbook, released Wednesday by Rutgers University’s National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).


KEY FINDINGS

For School Year 2021-2022 are summarized below for Hawaiʻi:

Enrollment in state-funded preschool was 549, an increase of 158;

State spending for preschool programs was $6,912,020, a decrease of $2,630,313 (inflation adjusted);

State spending per child enrolled in preschool was $12,590;

Hawaiʻi met 10 of 10 quality standards benchmarks. The benchmarks include:

Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS)

Curriculum supports

Teacher degree

Teacher specialized training

Assistant teacher degree

Staff professional development

Maximum class size (20)

Staff-child ratio (1:10).

Screenings and referrals

State requirements regarding a Continuous Quality Improvement System (CQIS).

Hawaiʻi has committed to working towards universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds;

Hawaiʻi did not provide incentives for preschool teacher retention or recruitment.

The new report found substantial year-over-year progress in enrollment nationally with a 13% increase of children in state-funded preschool in 2021-2022 with 180,668 more preschoolers enrolled than in the prior school year, and growth in nearly every state.


HAWAII: 2022 NATIONAL RANKINGS

Enrollment at age 4: 45th (3%)

Enrollment at age 3: 32nd (0.4%)

State spending per child: 4th ($12,590)

All-reported spending per child: 4th ($12,590)

Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Early Learning Program Opportunity Available to East Hawaiʻi Charter Schools

Due to the unfortunate closure of Nā Wai Ola Public Charter School's prekindergarten program, the Commission is opening a special opportunity to a charter school that can serve the approximately 15 displaced children and families as a priority. Due to these special conditions to serve the displaced students in the Mountain View-Volcano area, only existing charter schools authorized by the Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission and located in East Hawaiʻi Island are eligible.

Please apply if you can provide approved facilities and a pre-K program for these keiki.

Please use this link to complete the application:
https://docs.google.com/forms/...

Hawaiʻi State Public Charter Schools' Early Learning Programs Maintain High Quality Components Despite COVID-19

April 28, 2022

HONOLULU, HI – The Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission (“the Commission”) Early Learning Program was recognized for meeting nine of the ten high quality standard benchmarks identified by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) for the school year 2020-2021. The national ranking for these benchmarks is part of NIEER’s annual State Preschool Yearbook released this week. The ten standards serve as indicators of what’s required to establish a high-quality public preschool program. Nationally, only eleven-percent of children in preschool are in programs meeting nine of the 10 NIEER’s benchmarks for minimum quality.

The State Public Charter School Commission Interim Executive Director Yvonne Lau states, “The Public Charter School Early Learning Program continues to maintain high-quality early learning standards while providing high-quality early learning opportunities to our students in our communities that need them the most. We are humbled and proud of our schools for this achievement, especially given all of the challenges, including COVID-19. Building off the foundations afforded to us through the Federal Pre-K grants and now invested in our communities by our State, the State Public Charter School Early Learning Programʻs recognition by NIEER of the quality of our program is a testament to the commitment and perseverance of our schools to continue doing whatʻs best for our youngest learners.”

In 2014, Hawaiʻi was awarded a highly competitive four year federal Preschool Development Grant (PDG) administered by the Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission. In comparison to other programs across the nation, Hawaiʻi was unique particularly since all preschool programs in charter schools offer some level of Native Hawaiian culture in their curriculum. Of the 17 preschool programs in charter schools, seven classrooms offer in depth instruction in Native Hawaiian language whereby the culture is learned through the immersion of the Hawaiian language and embedded throughout the instruction, and family engagement activities.

Since 2015, the Commission has worked with the State Legislature to sustain the public prekindergarten programs in charter schools following the sunset of the PDG federal grant. Through strong State legislative support, classrooms previously funded through PDG are now state-funded and under the administration of the Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission.

Following national trends, one of the areas of challenge is the limited number of qualified teachers, which is exacerbated in rural remote areas. This is further magnified on the islands neighboring the main island of Oʻahu. Charter schools find it difficult to secure qualified teachers and when they do, these schools may lose them to other competing early learning programs. In 2017, the Commission had an opportunity to submit a proposal for additional PDG supplemental funding, focusing on areas not included in the original PDG grant proposal. In this supplemental proposal, the Commission addressed the need for workforce development, specifically assisting teachers and educational assistants to minimize the financial burden of college enrollment. The intent was to provide tuition subsidies to help with college coursework that led to a degree in early childhood education and teacher licensure. This program was open to all early childhood providers in the field, and was not limited to educators in charter schools. This addressed the systemic need for this type of program. In that one year, the Commission was able to assist 163 individuals with coursework. There continues to be a high demand for this type of financial support for the field. This program initiated by the Commission, led to potential state legislation to sustain these efforts.

Among other things, NIEER’s State Preschool Yearbook assesses and ranks state-run public preschool programs according to how much each state spends per student and the percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds the programs serve. Hawaiʻi ranks third for per-student state spending for all public prekindergarten program which includes charter schools and programs in the DOE. It ranks 44th for all 4-year-olds to have access to the public prekindergarten programs in Hawaiʻi State Public Charter Schools and the EOEL Public Prekindergarten Programs. The Hawaiʻi State Public Charter Schools were approved by the State Legislature to begin serving three-year-olds during the 2020-2021 school year. However the legislation was enacted after most of the classrooms were at full enrollment capacity.

The full 2021 State Preschool Yearbook is available online here.