Learning Community Case Study: Teachers

Who are the Teachers and Staff at Kapolei High School?

According to the School Status and Improvement Report for the 2007-2008 year, Kapolei High School had 122 teachers. Almost three-quarters of the teachers were regular instructors while the remaining teachers were mostly special education instructors. Teachers at Kapolei High School, in terms of their teaching experience, are about average. About 40% of the teachers have been at Kapolei for five years or more, which is not surprising since the school opened in 2000. However, the average age of experience is 8.1 years, so those relatively new teachers had some teaching experience before coming to Kapolei. Just over a third of the teachers have advanced degrees and most of them are fully licensed, with about 13% of the teachers needing to complete their licensure. The student to teacher ratio is about 21 to 1 for regular classes and 11 to 1 for special education classes.

At Kapolei High School, there are 8 administrators. The Principal is Elden Esmeralda, who has been at the school for at least the last five years, the Vice Principals are Doris Yamashiro, Hartwell Leee Loy, Jon Henry Lee and Darren Camello, and the School Administrative Services Assistant is Valerie Daoang. There are also 2 librarians and 8 counselors.

I had the opportunity to perform service learning at Kapolei for an education class and I had to check-in at the Administration Office to receive my visitor’s pass. From what I could tell when I was in the office, they sounded as if they were happy and they appreciated the teacher that I was visiting for letting them know ahead of time to expect my arrival. For a public school, Kapolei appears to have a very good academic structure and support system. Kapolei has a unique format that teachers follow, at least when it comes to teaching ninth grade Social Studies and English, because there were teams of teachers who took turns being in charge of a double class of roughly forty students. On one day, the class would focus on Social Studies, and the next day it would focus on English. In some classes, there were a few SPED students grouped with regular needs students. I asked the teacher I was visiting if and how she adapts her lesson plans to meet the needs of the SPED students, and she said that she works with the SPED teacher to adapt some parts of her lessons so that it coincides with the SPED students’ IEP’s. She said it was very important to have a good working relationship with the SPED teacher and to keep a clear line of communication open. I also got the chance to meet two of the school’s librarians. They were very nice and said that the teacher I was visiting is a good teacher, and I would be able to learn from her, which I agree. From the teachers I met during my service learning, the experience of the teachers ranged from 3-5 years, and for all of them, teaching at Kapolei High School was their first teaching job. According to the School Quality Survey, 76 % of the teachers were satisfied with Kapolei, and over 80% felt it was a professional work environment.

How have teachers changed over the years, specifically at Kapolei?

Over the years, teachers and teaching methods evolved to meet the multitude of student needs dictated by Federal and State laws, but the basic idea remains the same. Since 3000 BC a teacher works with a group of students to impart knowledge and encourage learning amongst the students. Teachers in the United States began in New England in the 17^th century as a way to teach a few select white males about religious doctrine. These teachers were also white males and approached instruction as a way to maintain the social order and function of privileged groups in the local village or town. As religious doctrine gave way to more secular reading, writing, and math skills, and other school subjects in the 18^th and 19^th century, teachers remained mostly male and strict. It wasn’t until the mid-19^th century, when education was offered to a larger population of white males and females as Common Schools, that gender roles in teaching began to change. Female teachers were seen as more nurturing than males, and despite being paid 1/3 less than their male counterparts, began dominating the profession. At the beginning of the 20^th century, public schools were commonplace, and established in all parts of the United States, including the Western United States. Here, teachers were still expected to be task masters and instill a strict sense of discipline of all students and teachers were expected to hold themselves to the highest morals. It wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that schools began reflecting the civil rights movement and school was equally accessible for all students regardless of gender or race. However, even to the present, white female teachers remain the majority, making up about 75% of the teaching profession.

According to the School Status and Improvement Report for the 2000-2001 year, Kapolei High School began with 21 teachers, but the ratio of regular teachers to special education teachers was the same as it was in 2008. However, the average experience was over 12 years and about 1/3^rd had advanced degree. This means that over the last 7 years, new teachers have been coming to Kapolei High School. The teaching to student ratio also increased slight by one or two students over the years for both regular and special education classes. Interestingly, Kapolei started with most of its administrators (6), and have added only two more since. They also added one more librarian, but added 7 more counselors. Also interesting is that 64% of the teachers rated satisfaction with Kapolei High School, which is about 12% less than in 2008, but rated student safety at 91%. These scores, along with some of the other scores on the Quality School Survey, indicates that students were well supported and safe, but may not have felt supported themselves.

What laws protect the rights of Kapolei teachers and staff?

One law that I focused on is the First Amendment, specifically whether Kapolei High School teachers have the right to speak out against policies that they do not agree with and still keep their job? According to the Touch the Future…Teach text, free speech is allowed for teachers as long as it does not break a law or affect their work in the classroom. The Supreme Court’s decision from Pickering v. Board of Education says that teachers can, as long as it is not detrimental to the operation of the school. Of course, this is Hawaii and there will be backlash by those who do not share similar feelings or ideas, and I would imagine that teachers would not want to come to work every day knowing that their co-workers are against them. So, it seems that on paper, teacher’s right to free speech is protected, but in reality, “boat-rockers” may experience a backlash for speaking out.

The other law that I focused on is on the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment, and whether teachers at Kapolei can be fired. I focused on this law because I always wondered why it is so difficult to get bad teachers fired. According to the Hawai`i State Teacher Association and a teaching friend of mine who works for the DOE, tenure for DOE teachers is currently set for service of 1 year and 1 day. This means that before tenure a teacher can be fired for any reason without the administration showing any “cause” why. After tenure, a teacher can only be fired if the administration can show evidence of “cause” that the teacher is no longer fit to teach. Cause can mean breaking a law or not showing up to work, but cause is much harder to show if the teacher is merely incompetent or has strong opinions regarding an issue. The administration must demonstrate that the bad teacher who has tenure is consistently incompetent by gathering evidence over the course of years, and then also has to give the bad teacher time to get better. Showing cause is so burdensome for the administration that if the bad teacher is not overwhelmingly a problem, then it isn’t worth the effort and resources to fire that person! In addition, Kapolei teachers automatically join the HSTA, whose main function is to protect their rights against no due process and collective bargaining.