Back in 2017, the Kualapuʻu Charter School was underperforming in student literacy.
School leaders launched a curriculum overhaul for the roughly 350 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. We wanted our kids to do more reading and writing, said Vice Principal Loretta Sherwood. So we found a program that really emphasized what kids were doing, rather than the teacher being the focal point of the lesson, you know, talking or demonstrating most of the lesson.
Sherwood says they wanted a program that gave students more hands-on learning opportunities, while also giving teachers the time to observe student performance and plan lessons to help students and the class grow.