Hawaiian children with disabilities are among those with the lowest measured skills in today’s technology, literacy, and mathematics. Hawaiian children and youth with disabilities need basic academics and pride in their culture to succeed. To improve education and outcomes, Ho‘opa‘a seeks to boost literacy, math, technology skills, and use of Hawaiian language through evidence based methods. Ho‘opa‘a project goals include:
- Infuse Hawaiian culture and language into currently proven and promising educational supplements.
- Implement a menu of programs in six sites. The curriculum includes technology, reading and writing, mathematics, and Hawaiian language.
- Apply a Community Response Model to improve outcomes and increase the extent to which Hawaiian culture drives the processes.
- Improve self-efficacy and self-determination, by providing students with fun and successful education and cultural experiences. Through Video Futures, at-risk youth and students with disabilities will learn to create self modeling videos for peers and younger children.
- Ensure adequate training and materials of teachers and paraprofessionals. We will train and mentor current staff at participating schools.