Welcome back! Parent letter from Supt. Kathryn Matayoshi

We are proud to serve Hawai‘i’s children, and we hope you’re proud of your public schools. Follow our journey this year on our website and via social media — #ProudtoServeKeiki.

Aloha parents and guardians:         29-Jul-2015 

Welcome to the 2015-16 school year! Our state and school-level staff has been working hard this summer to ready school campuses and advance our knowledge and skills to best serve your children and prepare them for college, career and community.

​Our focus this year is “Proud to Serve Keiki.” We’ve spent the last five years reforming the public school system to raise the quality of educational opportunity for your child — new standards, new assessments, new organizational structures to improve collaboration and use of data. These initiatives are starting to pay off — more students are graduating, more students are taking advanced coursework, more students are going to college and are prepared for college-level classes, more students are attending school, and more ninth graders are transitioning successfully into high school.

(Learn more in our factsheet, Our Schools.)

While there is still work to do, progress is being made. Our military, business and non-profit partners have taken note of it, and are more involved. Reforms are taking root and we have a solid foundation.

This fall, families of children who took the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) last spring — currently fourth through ninth graders and high school seniors — will receive a Family Report of their scores. We’ve been saying it for a while now, and it bears repeating — the SBA scores will set a new baseline, and cannot be compared with our old assessment. SBA is more rigorous, and aligned with Hawaii Common Core Standards that provide better insight on students’ educational track and preparation for life after high school. You can learn more at your next parent-teacher conference, or at Parent Night at your school. Families who love to learn together should check out these resources.

We are proud to serve Hawai‘i’s children, and we hope you’re proud of your public schools. Lots of our keiki feel the same way. Watch “I am a Hawaii public school student​,” above, and follow our journey by visiting HawaiiPublicSchools.org. You can also stay informed via social media! #ProudtoServeKeiki

Mahalo,

Kathryn Matayoshi
Superintendent