By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
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Military families are feeling more positive about Hawai'i schools than they did a year ago, but their children in Grades 5 through 8 may be showing negative emotional effects from parental deployment in Iraq, according to a new survey.
Sponsored by the five-year-old Joint Venture Education Forum, a partnership between the military, Hawai'i public schools and the community, the survey has been tracking military-family attitudes since 2000.
Positive feelings about Hawai'i schools rose in a number of areas this year, reflecting a generally improving attitude by military families stationed in Hawai'i.
But with middle-school students showing "significant drops" in their feelings of well-being about school, analysts feel this area needs more study, and they recommend additional research.
"Traditionally this is the most positive age group," said Alton Okinaka, a professor of sociology at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo who served as a consultant for the survey. "I think they're more susceptible to being affected emotionally. We suspect it's the effects of deployment."
The particular areas where students' positive feelings fell involved whether the school had created a good learning environment, whether it had made positive changes over the past year and whether the student would recommend it to others.
In particular, student responses from those grade levels were still relatively low in such areas as:
Despite those concerns, surveyors at the Strategic Research Group out of Ohio State University, which conducted the study, noted that the gains in positive feelings among parents about the availability of computers and technology in the schools "are huge," the best marks ever seen in the survey.
While the survey has not been fully analyzed, in general parents felt strongly positive in many areas, including whether their children feel safe at school, are welcomed, able to learn, and being taught by qualified teachers.
But two students disagreed with some of those findings, in remarks after the annual meeting held at Bellows Air Force Station.
Breanne Myers, a senior at Kalaheo High School said her transition into Hawai'i a year ago was the most difficult she's ever faced as a child of a military family.
"It's slower, people talk different, I've never been in the minority before I moved here," she said.
Jonathan Sherman, also a senior at Kalaheo High, said he felt the same way — coming to Hawai'i was the hardest transition he has ever faced because everything was so different, especially the way students act, speak and dress.
"When I came here I had no idea what they were saying," he said.
Both students faced their sense of isolation by immediately getting involved in clubs at the school, and now feel comfortable.
"A lot of people here don't understand the military," said Myers, describing how groups at school are so segregated. "I've never seen a culture where people are split up so much."
Said Sherman: "I think it's more out of fear of each other."
However, parent Phil Davis, commanding officer of the Navy Reserve Center in Honolulu, said he has been impressed with Holomua School in 'Ewa Beach where his sons are in first and third grades.
"We weighed the private-school option but we've been very happy," he said.
"I had heard you have to be careful about what school district you choose and there's a wide array of quality," he said. "But what I found was most people giving that advice were here in the 1990s."
Hawai'i has 15,000 school-age military dependents and 45 public schools where the student body population of military dependents exceeds 10 percent. The JVEF has been trying to ease transitions both in and out of Hawai'i schools for those students.
With assistance from U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye and about $5 million annually from the Department of Defense, the joint venture has been able to allot extra money to schools to add computer labs, buy textbooks, build sidewalks, create school transition centers, build playgrounds and make small repairs. As well, military-school partnerships bring service people into the schools to help with projects, tutoring or reading to the children.
"It's a win-win situation," said Clayton Fujie, deputy superintendent for the DOE. "A lot of the servicemen are young, away from home and they bond with the kids. In a lot of instances they're like a big brother or big sister."
Additionally, training is being provided for school counselors and teachers in "military culture," and they in turn are bringing their classes onto Hawai'i military bases to help break down barriers and promote understanding.
Campbell High School principal Gail Awakuni, 2005 National Principal of the Year, said the venture has been a tremendous benefit to her school.
"The funds for technology allowed us to create a second computer lab and purchase textbooks," said Awakuni. As a result, students feel more connected to the school and their studies, she said, noting that the number of freshmen held back to repeat a grade has improved, going from 350 students held back several years ago, to 55 last year out of about 700 students.
Allen Awaya, education program manager for public schools for U.S. Pacific Command, said the scope and effectiveness of the venture has increased over the past four years.
"Annually we've probably put an average of $1 million into textbooks and about the same into computers," said Awaya. New playgrounds have also been built at several dozen schools.
"Our goal," he said, "was to make sure all of the military-impacted schools had at least two playgrounds."
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.
