Formula Behind Huakailani's Success?

I often get asked the question, how do you individualize learning for all students? It all sounds great but how do you do it?

In this blog posting, I will outline the formula behind Huakailani's successful program. It is actually quite scientific and parallels the medical field. Would you go to a doctor who was not grounded with knowledge of best medical  practices, constantly researching best medicines, practices and proactively monitoring and assessing your health and helping you get better if you were ill?

The formula for Huakailani's individualized program is grounded by my many years of experience in the public and private education system. As a parent, teacher and administrator, I have been through the educational swings of the pendulum: basal books to whole language, phonics is a taboo word to we need phonics, enrichment programs are important to back to basics only, no standardized testing to teach to the test. The educational practice pendulum and buzzwords make it even murky for teachers to determine what is the best practice. Parents end up having to place all their trust in their child's school, hoping they know what the practices are and that they are being used on your child.  In the end, it is not the current educational trend or program that is labeled as "the best" that is the best for all students.  The latest medical procedure or medicine may not be the best for your ailment or illness.

Another important element in the our school's formula is the priority the school places on keeping up to date on current brain research and programs, methodologies and curriculums that are available. This is an essential best practice so we can prescribe the right methodology/program for your child. You trust that your doctor does this for you medically, shouldn't a school do this for your child educationally?

At Huakailani we do not just use one particular methodology or program for every child. That would be comparable to prescribing only one brand of medicine to all patients who have the same ailment.  We use the program or methodology that best matches your child's learning needs. Just as you would expect your doctor to prescribe the medicine or procedure that is the best for your specific medical need.

The best way to describe what we do behind the scenes to determine what to method or program we use with your child is to relate it to a physical. It is not only important for a person to go to the doctor when he/she is ill but also regularly for physicals or check ups to make sure that there are no medical problems. A doctor finds out your medical history and gives you tests as needed to determine any present problems as well as being on top of what has gone on before in your medical history. A thorough medical exam would exam you from the top down.

At Huakailani, we collect as much information as we can about your child's social, emotional and educational history. If there is any information missing, we take the time to collect the data. If we find problems or areas of concern (weakness in phonics, lack of a particular social skill, reading below grade level, weakness in number concepts, etc) we "prescribe" a methodology or program to fix it. During the learning process, I even tell the girls that quizzes are just check-ups to see how you are doing. The girls have even made their own connections relating practice at school to medicine. "You give us practice Dr. Brown so we get better at multiplication and once we get better, we don't need that practice anymore." I couldn't have said that better myself!

Not only do we take the time to collect this important information so that we have your child's full educational history, we also continue to constantly monitor problems to make sure that your child is educationally healthy!

So you may still be wondering - how do you do it?  We didn't invent anything new, we just use a system that already works. We run our program like a doctor's office. A lead instructor is supported by a staff of educational assistants who specialize in various areas. Students are diagnosed individually and continuously. A plan is put into place to "prescribe" remediation, practice or enrichment."

Of course, any great formula always has special ingredients that makes it a formula that provides results, the top secret ingredient in the Huakailani formula is the organizational day to day structure, personnel schedule and organization that makes all this happen. The not so secret ingredient is the love for learning, care, nurture, enrichment and fun that is mixed into the formula. We know the formula works because we see positive results in our students every day.

Experience and knowledge + constant research + ongoing check-ups + accurately prescribed prescriptions + Huakailani special ingredients = Educationally healthy student who is working at her full potential