The Center defines its purpose out of inspiration from the local traditions of Wai‘anae, Hawai‘i, and our school’s identity as the Home of the Navigators. The navigation theme aligns the Center’s work with the experience of traditional Polynesian voyagers.[1] On one level, voyagers must rely on their environment for all of their support and direction—the stars, the ocean, the birds, the winds. At Kamaile, we, too, must rely upon our own environment, which is the families and broader community from which our students come, to find our direction and steer the course. At the same time, the voyagers need to maintain themselves—mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally—in order for the canoe to utilize those natural guides. In order to utilize the richness of our environment, we, too, must engage and nurture the comprehensive needs of our students. Furthermore, voyagers always navigate with a clear purpose and destination, constantly checking their progress on that course. Through innovative, meaningful, and comprehensive data collection, we must track our progress toward our goal of the wellbeing and success of the whole child. Finally, in moving their canoe forward, the voyagers advanced not only themselves but their entire people, allowing for even greater understanding and utilization of those original natural foundations in their environment. As we move toward every Kamaile student realizing his or her infinite worth, we see their individual development promoting the development of our broader community.

 

The original plans for the Navigators’ Center came largely out of a formal research study conducted in 2009-2010 by a Master’s student within the College of Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. The purpose of this study was to gather insights from members of the Kamaile school community on the implementation of plans to bring the community school model to Kamaile Academy, an idea very much in line with the mission of the Navigators’ Center.

 

The community schools model is a clear fit for the work that has been occurring at Kamaile Academy for years and is continued by the Navigators’ Center. The Coalition for Community Schools, which advocates for community schools across the nation, describes the model as such:

 

“A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between school and community. It has an integrated focus on academics, youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development… The community school is uniquely equipped to develop an educated citizenry, to strengthen family and community, and to nurture democracy in the twenty-first century.”[2]

 

The community schools movement has gained much momentum in the past couple of decades, spreading across the United States and the globe. The National Center for Community Schools in New York City has done a wonderful job documenting the origins, development, and spread of the model both in research and in practice.[3]

 

Research has proven the positive impact that the core elements of the community school approach can have on young people and their education. On the front of after-school and summer activities, multiple studies have illustrated the positive impact structured programming can have on youth academically and beyond, including socially and behaviorally.[4] Likewise, focusing on the development of not just academic skills but the whole child—socially, emotionally, physically, morally, and vocationally—is shown to have long-lasting benefits on children.[5] Community schools’ specific focus on physical health is further rooted in research that demonstrates disparities in fundamental, education-related health indicators among poor, minority youth, a group that is underperforming academically as is well known through the national achievement gap.[6] The model’s emphasis on schools involving families and communities in meaningful and substantial ways is also shown to have significant positive influence on the development of youth and the success of schools on the whole.[7] Lastly, experts have recognized the community school pillar of partnering with outside organizations and resources to support students as a key strategy in successful school turnarounds.[8] The evidence is there to support the importance of all the key components of the community school.

 

Though all of the components of a community school have been supported, one could still ask the question of whether those benefits would still occur if all of the individual aims were combined within one effort, exactly as community schools set out to do. In this line of thinking, it is important to note that the notion of community schools is by no means new. The great John Dewey recognized the potential impact of such an effort at the beginning of the 20th century:

 

“We may say that the conception of the school as a social centre [sic] is born of our entire democratic movement. Everywhere we see signs of the growing recognition that the community owes to each one of its members the fullest opportunity for development… This is no longer viewed as a matter of charity, but as a matter of justice—nay, even of something higher and better than justice—a necessary phase of developing and growing life.”[9]

 

According to the National Center for Community Schools,[10] the community schools model can be traced back to the work of individuals like Jane Addams in the late 1800s in urban settlement houses for newly arrived immigrants. As evidenced by the quote from Dewey above, advocates began calling for schools to fulfill a larger purpose in society and to play a central role in the community in the early 1900s. Support from actors like the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in the 1930s and 1960s with their investments in community education furthered the mission. The modern push for community schools can be attributed largely to the work of groups like Beacons, Bridges to Success, Children’s Aid Society, and some university-assisted efforts in the 1980s and 1990s that were a response to the growing body of research on the education of children living in poverty.

 

From these roots, various interpretations of the community schools model have arisen in locations across 43 states in the U.S. and 69 countries across the globe.[11] The model has also been the subject of a breadth of research studies that have on the whole shown promising results in terms of both educational outcomes and overall youth development.[12]

 

Educationally, the Center looks to the foundations laid by the likes of John Dewey[13] who developed the idea of educating young people by rooting learning in experience, appealing to all of the needs of the child, and nurturing a drive within students to better themselves through learning. Within contemporary education trends, the Center looks largely to the whole child approach, which declares, “Each child, in each school, in each of our communities deserves to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.”[14]

 

In a very broad sense, the Center is driven by the conception of “development as freedom” championed by the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.[15] This view posits that true human development provides the social arrangements necessary for an individual to realize her full agency as a human being. The Center seeks to provide the comprehensive support structure necessary for the students of Kamaile to discover, nurture, and share their infinite worth. Ultimately, the students’ development may promote the similar development of individuals in their families and the broader community.

 

 

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[1] For one of many works detailing traditional Polynesian “wayfinding” and its modern-day practice, see the following: Kyselka, Will. (1987). An Ocean in Mind. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

 

[2] From http://www.communityschools.org

 

[3] Lubell, E. (2011). Building Community Schools: A Guide for Action. New York: The Children’s Aid Society, National Center for Community Schools.

 

[4] Clark, R. M. (1988). Critical Factors in Why Disadvantaged Students Succeed or Fail in School. New York: Academy for Educational Development; McLaughlin, M.W. (2000). Community Counts: How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development. Washington, D.C.: Public Education Network; Smink, J., & Deich, S. (2010). A New Vision for Summer School. Baltimore, MD: National Summer Learning Association; Terzian, M., Anderson Moore, K., & Hamilton, K. (2009). Effective and Promising Summer Learning Programs and Approaches for Economically-Disadvantaged Children and Youth: A White Paper for the Wallace Foundation. Bethesda, MD: Child Trends; and Vandell, D.L., Reisner, E.R., and Pierce, K.M. (2007). Outcomes Linked to High-Quality Afterschool Programs: Longitudinal Findings from the Study of Promising Afterschool Programs. Washington, D.C.: Policy Studies Associates.

 

[5] Eccles, J.S. (1999). The development of children ages 6 to 14. The Future of Children: When School is Out, 9(2), 30-44.

 

[6] Basch, C.E. (2010). Healthier Students are Better Learners. New York: The Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College.

 

[7] Bryk, A.S., et al. (2010). Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Epstein, J.L. (1995). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(9), 701-712; and Weiss, H. B., Lopez, M. E., and Rosenberg, H. (2010). Beyong Random Acts: Family, School, and Community Engagement as an Integral Part of Education Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.

 

[8] Pappano, L. (2010). Inside School Turnarounds: Urgent Hopes, Unfolding Stories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

 

[9] Dewey, J. (1902). The school as social centre. The Elementary School Teacher, 3(2), 73-86. (p. 86)

 

[10] Lubell, E. (2011). Building Community Schools: A Guide for Action. New York: The Children’s Aid Society, National Center for Community Schools.

 

[11] Ibid.

 

[12] Dryfoos, J.G. (1994). Full-Service Schools: A Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers; Dryfoos, J. G. (1995). Full service schools: Revolution or Fad? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 5(2), 147-172; Dryfoos, J. (2002). Full-service community schools: Creating new institutions. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(5), 393-399; Dryfoos, J. G. (2003). A community school in action. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 11(4), 203-205; Dryfoos, J. (2005). Full-service community schools: A strategy—not a program. New Directions for Youth Development, 107, 7-14; Kronick, R. F. (2005). Full Service Community Schools: Prevention of Delinquency in Students with Mental Illness and/or Poverty. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas; and Robison, E. (1993). An Interim Evaluative Report Concerning a Collaboration between the Children's Aid Society, New York City Board of Education, Community School District 6, and the I.S. 218 Salome Urena de Henriquez School [and] The Community Schools P.S. 5 and I.S. 218 Spring 1994 Update. New York: Graduate School of Social Service of Fordham University.

 

[13] For one of many examples, see Dewey’s Democracy and Education.

 

[14] See http://www.wholechildeducation.org

 

[15] Sen, A. (2000). Development as Freedom. Harpswell, ME: Anchor.