Report shows mixed results for Big Island school performance

According to the DOE, Kohala High School had the highest graduation rate increase among all

public schools, not including charter schools, increasing by 14%, rising from 75% in 2017-18 to 89% in the 2018-19 school year over.

Janette Snelling, deputy complex area superintendent for the Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area previously served as Kohala High principal.

“I think the staff at Kohala High School have really been focused on a standards-based grading effort over the last four years,” she said Thursday.

An integral part of that is making a connection between learning and meaning for students.

There’s a balance in “what we want students to know and do and what students find relevant in that work … and I really feel that the hard work dedicated to this effort is demonstrated in that rise in graduation rates.”

Snelling said, too, that the Kohala complex is a small community with just one feeder school and there’s a commitment within the complex “to work as partners” throughout grade levels.

“I think schools in the complex are keenly aware that a successful graduate represents the culmination of learning experiences from kindergarten through 12th grade,” she said.

Kohala High also had the second highest increase of 12th-graders who completed a Career and Technical Education program of study — 60% compared to 34% in 2017-18.

The challenge of a small school is being able to offer a broad range of career pathways for students, said Snelling.

Kohala High focuses on five career pathways and has built partnerships in the community to add quality and authenticity to the program, she said.

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Report shows mixed results for Big Island school performance