Indigenous Education Conference Celebrates Hawaii Charter Schools in February

Change is something everybody talks about but few of us notice it as it happens. During the exciting Ku’i ka Lono Conference, participants will learn what charter schools are all about and the needed change they have brought to public education.

Please join us as we celebrate the diversity that such a process makes possible and rejoice in the potential improvements this offers for our state, certainly a candidate for most diverse in the nation.

The Ku’i ka Lono Conference will take place February 20-21, 2017 in Waimea, Hawaii Island.

Ku’i ka Lono is a celebration of the incredible accomplishments of charter schools students in Hawaii. Collectively, these students are living proof that Education with Aloha© is working and allows Hawaii’s students to reach high levels of accomplishment and walk comfortably in multiple worlds. Students will share their work with a wider audience at the 15th Annual Nä Lei Na‘auao (Alliance for Native Hawaiian Education) conference. This conference is being held in collaboration with the Innovative Schools Network.

Nä Lei Na‘auao (NLN) was founded in 2000 by Native Hawaiian educators, parents and community members from throughout the archipelago. NLN’s mission is to establish, implement, and continuously strengthen models of education throughout the Hawaiian islands and beyond, which are community-designed and controlled and reflect, respect and embrace ‘ōlelo Hawai’i, ‘ike Hawai’i, and Hawaiian cultural values, philosophies and practices. The the Innovative Schools Network (ISN) is a national organization that supports the establishment and growth of high quality, research-based innovative schools by providing professional training and guidance, and ensuring that educators can easily collaborate, connect, and learn from one another.

Aligning with worldwide Indigenous educational reform efforts, NLN and ISN are using the national charter school movement as a vehicle to provide viable     choices in education at the community level. NLN also partners with Hawaiian organizations and others interested in closing Hawaii’s achievement gap, to create a system of education that is culturally-driven, community-based, family-oriented and results in the establishment of sustainable communities, particularly in Hawaii’s rural areas.