Roughly a quarter of Hawaiian immersion teachers are unlicensed, and schools need more educators as the programs grow in popularity.

Over the past 10 years, Hawaiian language immersion schools have seen a 60% increase in student enrollment, even as statewide public school enrollment has steadily declined. The number of immersion schools under the Hawaii Department of Education has grown from 14 to 22, with more families hoping to raise children fluent in the state’s two official languages.

But Hawaiian immersion schools are struggling to find the resources and staffing they need to meet the growing demand. Roughly a third of the state’s Hawaiian immersion teaching positions were unfilled leading up to the 2023-24 school year, and some schools have turned away interested families due to limited staffing and resources.

Over 2,300 DOE students were enrolled in Hawaiian immersion schools last year.

Legislators passed a bill in May appropriating $3.5 million to support Kaiapuni — the collective name for DOE immersion schools — in the upcoming academic year. The funding will support 10 teacher positions and three curriculum specialists under the Office of Hawaiian Education, which helps to develop and expand Kaiapuni schools across the state.

Gov. Josh Green has until July 10 to sign House Bill 2074.

Even with additional state support, Kaiapuni schools are still searching for long-term solutions to grow their capacity. Hawaii has a shortage of educators qualified to teach Kaiapuni classes, and few teaching materials are available in Hawaiian.

“The classrooms are bursting at the seams,” said Brandi Cutler, a Kaiapuni parent at Puohala School in Kaneohe.

To accommodate the growing number of families interested in Hawaiian immersion, the school recently expanded to accommodate middle and high school Kaiapuni classes.

DOE will also need to request additional money from the Legislature next year to sustain the 13 positions established under HB 2074. The department declined a request for an interview. 

Funding And Staffing Challenges

At most Hawaiian immersion schools in the DOE, Kaiapuni students take classes on the same campuses as their English language peers. Kaiapuni students receive instruction only in Hawaiian until fifth grade, when schools introduce English as a subject. 

When schools serve Kaiapuni and English language students, principals must hire teachers for both programs. Because student enrollment largely determines how much money schools annually receive, campuses with small Kaiapuni programs may lack the funding to hire enough Hawaiian immersion teachers for every subject.

To help smaller Kaiapuni schools with staffing, OHE has 35 Hawaiian immersion teacher positions that are state-funded and assigned to campuses in need of additional educators. Even still, the positions are spread thin across DOE’s 22 Kaiapuni schools.

On the Big Island, Ke Kula O Ehunuikaimalino serves Kaiapuni students in grades kindergarten through 12. Principal Jessica Dahlke said she welcomes teacher positions funded through OHE.

But, Dahlke said, OHE’s positions aren’t guaranteed every year, and Kaiapuni schools always need more teachers. Ke Kula O Ehunuikaimalino’s OHE teaching positions dropped from three to two for the upcoming school year as the office shifted some of its resources to support an emerging Kaiapuni program at Haleiwa Elementary.

The 10 additional teacher positions established under HB 2074 will allow principals to grow their Kaiapuni staff with no additional costs to the school. As a result, Dahlke added, schools will have more room to fund other priorities, like expanding summer learning opportunities or creating additional classroom spaces for students.

“One of the resources that we need specifically at this school is space and facilities,” Dahlke said, adding that some classrooms are overcrowded. “There’s a lot of things that we could be looking at in terms of teacher staffing.”

Teacher Shortages Persist

While some Kaiapuni schools may have the opportunity to grow their staff next year, finding qualified teachers remains a challenge.

The ongoing shortage of Kaiapuni teachers has stunted some schools’ growth.

Ke Kula O Ehunuikaimalino capped its kindergarten enrollment at 22 for the upcoming school year, resulting in a waitlist of seven students.

Big Island only has three DOE Kaiapuni schools, so some students travel over 100 miles to attend Ke Kula O Ehunuikaimalino, Dahlke said. In the past, she added, a single teacher has served as many as 31 students at a time, but the large class sizes have strained the campus’ facilities and resources.

“A lot of us would like to see Kaiapuni education offered to everybody, but given the hardship of facilities and finding qualified kumu, the school isn’t able to keep up with that demand,” Dahlke said.

Currently, the state only has two teacher education programs that prepare students for a teaching license in Kaiapuni education. 

The University of Hawaii Hilo has a yearlong master’s program leading to a teaching license in Kaiapuni education, said professor Kananinohea Makaimoku. The program’s requirements are rigorous: students must enter with four years of study in Hawaiian and complete 1,000 hours of student teaching. All courses in the master’s program are taught in Hawaiian.   

Over 150 people have graduated from the program, which enrolls about eight students each year.

Currently, Makaimoku said, a quarter of Kaiapuni teachers are unlicensed, meaning that they’re brought on as emergency hires or are working toward completing a teacher education program.

Anuenue School in Palolo Valley is one of two DOE campuses that only serve Hawaiian immersion students across grades kindergarten through twelve. Principal Baba Yim said it’s a constant challenge to find educators who are fluent in Hawaiian and are also qualified to teach subjects like high school math or science.

Roughly a third of teachers at Anuenue are working toward a full certification in Kaiapuni education, Yim added. 

“If there’s a teacher shortage in regular DOE schools, Kaiapuni is exponentially worse,” Yim said. 

More Learning Materials Needed

Another challenge is that relatively few textbooks or classroom lessons are written or translated into Hawaiian, and Kaiapuni schools lack a standardized curriculum. Teachers often have to develop lessons from scratch or adapt English language materials into Hawaiian.

HB 2074 provides continued support for OHE’s three curriculum specialists. The positions already exist in the department but were funded by federal Covid-19 relief funds that expire in September.

Rebecca Kapolei Kiili, a Kaiapuni teacher at King Kekaulike High School on Maui, said schools need more standardized teaching materials, particularly at the middle and high school levels. Moving forward, she added, she would like to see OHE develop readily available lessons in Hawaiian that new educators can use in their classrooms. 

“It’s a lot of work. I don’t think people really realize that not having a curriculum is hard,” Kiili said, adding that she’s sometimes had to develop lessons and materials for up to eight subjects in a year.

Kyle Kolomona Nakatsuka, who taught in Hawaiian immersion schools from 2017 to 2020, said there were few resources in Hawaiian he could use in his high school math and science classes at the time. An available Hawaiian translation of a standard chemistry textbook was sometimes difficult to understand, Nakatsuka said, and he often had to create his own worksheets and curriculum. 

Occasionally, he added, he would have to come up with his own Hawaiian translation for unfamiliar phrases like genetic drift.  

“There’s no Bill Nye The Science Guy in Hawaiian immersion,” Nakatsuka said. 

Pahonu Coleman, a recent graduate from Kailua High School’s first cohort of Kaiapuni students, said he recognized a need for more Hawaiian immersion resources and teachers as early as elementary school. He’d like to see more counselors and teachers who are fluent in Hawaiian and can better support Kaiapuni students at the high school level. 

“Any investment in Kaiapuni is an investment in making Hawaii, Hawaii,” Coleman said.