That Ed Noh grew up in California and got his start in school leadership in Seattle ironically works in his favor in some ways now that championing the charter-school cause is a big part of his job as the first permanent executive director of the Hawaii Public Charter School Commission in four years.
For instance, as Noh has been trying to get the 37 public charter schools he oversees to share their achievements for this year’s 30th anniversary of charter schools in Hawaii, one snag he’s encountered has been that many charter school officials “are very humble people. They are not the first ones who will say, ‘Hey, look at me, this is what I did,’” Noh said. Especially at the 17 charter schools that focus on Hawaiian culture and language, he said, “what I’m learning is there is just not a very culturally appropriate way to do that.”
“But since I’m not Hawaiian,” Noh, who is Korean American, continued with a chuckle, “I feel very comfortable with elevating and spotlighting.”
There’s more at stake than simple public relations. In a recent Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview — his first media interview since starting the job Feb. 16 — Noh said he is aware that Hawaii charter schools are under the proverbial microscope again as recent test score data suggests their students as a group are lagging behind traditional public school students statewide in some core subjects, leading some state lawmakers to call for stronger accountability and higher standards.
In the most recent StriveHI data, 47% of Hawaii charter school students as a group were measured as being proficient in English, 31% in math and 37% in science — compared with the 52%, 40% and 38% of students, respectively, in the islands’ traditional public schools.
Some state lawmakers also have wondered aloud whether inadequate oversight is the reason that in the charter schools’ three- decade history in Hawaii, no school has ever been closed. (Kamalani Academy in Wahiawa was ordered by the commission in February 2023 to close for charter contract violations, but the state Board of Education reversed the decision two months later.)
Hawaii’s charter school system also still operates in the lingering shadow of past issues. Following various problems reported at some charter schools, a legislative task force in 2011 recommended an overhaul of the charter school law, and a state auditor’s report separately found spending irregularities in some charter schools and said the charter system then was failing to hold schools accountable. “The charter school law lacks clear authority and responsibility assignments, resulting in conflicting roles and uncertainty,” then-state Auditor Marion Higa wrote at the time.
Noh said he believes that Hawaii’s charter school system has since evolved significantly and as a whole is doing well and that the State Charter School Commission is overseeing them appropriately but that they both often are misunderstood. So helping the public and community leaders better understand their purpose and strengths is among Noh’s first high priorities, he said.
Even though Hawaii has had public charter schools for more than three decades, Noh said he still spends a surprising amount of time explaining to those uninitiated just the basics of what charter schools are — that they are public schools, for example, and that they offer parents a tuition-free choice of programs that tend to be nimbler and more innovative than conventional models.
“We can’t get to the advocacy part until we get to the awareness piece. We want to make sure people understand there’s a lot of great things happening with charter schools. And just like our public schools, the (test) scores don’t always tell the full story,” Noh said.
“Each of the charter schools is so unique,” he added later. “Like in a mosaic or maybe a tapestry, each on their own is beautiful, but then you just kind of put it in this collage, this collective, and it’s quite impressive.”
Rooted in community
Noh said many people don’t realize that Hawaii has been a leader in the charter school movement and was one of the earliest states to embrace the concept of a publicly funded, tuition-free, independently operated and governed school.
While Minnesota is often recognized as the first state to authorize charter schools in 1991, Hawaii passed its charter-schools law soon after, in 1994. The schools that kicked off the local movement were Waialae Public Charter School and the former Lanikai Elementary School, which was renamed Ka‘ohao School as a charter. Noh was school director at Ka‘ohao from 2011 to 2019.
Noh said he believes that among the strengths of Hawaii’s charter schools are their mainly grassroots origins. That’s different from some mainland districts, where business entities such as “charter management organizations” originate charter schools.
In Hawaii a charter school typically “starts with maybe a vision of a local leader who says, ‘Hey, we need something in our community,’ because maybe the traditional school isn’t working, or maybe it’s a geographic barrier. And so you’ll see a lot of schools, and especially in the Big Island, where it (starts) because of, like, ‘Do I want my child to be on the bus for one hour to get to their nearest school, or do I want them to be really rooted in their community?’ …
“Seventeen out of our 37 charters are Hawaiian-focused charter schools. And that right there is a story in and of itself,” Noh added later. “It tells us that the community is really wanting to make sure that we … educate our students and prepare them for career, college or whatever community engagement they want to do, but grounded in the place where they are from. … On a national level, there’s a lot of interest from the national organizations of charter schools of how Hawaii is committed to this. We have some schools that are literally world-renowned models.”
Student-learning goals
Noh said he agrees that charter schools need to be held accountable for meeting student-learning goals and preparing students for success beyond school. “That’s such an important question because as the authorizer, we (the charter school commission) have that level of accountability. And each school, through a (charter) contract process and (contract) renewal process, they are accountable on those three main areas: the academic framework, the financial framework and the organizational framework. You really need all three, kind of like a stool, to be steady.”
But he said assessing the effectiveness of a charter school that focuses on Hawaiian language and culture, for instance, can be complex. Standardized tests administered in English can’t produce fair data in a Hawaiian immersion school where English isn’t introduced into the classroom until grade 5, and where some parents opt out of standardized testing on principle, he said. Test scores also don’t reflect the rich and supportive environment that can be found in a charter school, or the extra challenges that extra-small and K-12 charter campuses face, he said.
“So what we’re trying to do, and what I’ve assured some legislators already, is we want to kind of tease out or disaggregate the data and then really start to doing an apples-to-apples comparison,” Noh said.
Once the commission can develop such data, Noh believes it will show charter-school students by and large are being prepared well for college, career and more. Until then he points to anecdotal evidence at such schools as Ke Kula ‘o Nawahiokalaniopu‘u on Hawaii island, with its high rate of students entering college. “That is really hard to do because they have a small ‘n’ size. So the fact that you can get 90% or plus on any given cohort, I think that speaks volumes.”
More oversight
When asked whether he feels the charter contract renewal process is stringent enough given that no Hawaii charter has ever been closed due to failure to meet the terms of their charter contract, Noh responded that “that would be the question that every authorizer struggles with across the nation.”
Soon after the Hawaii charter schools system was put on notice by the 2011 legislative task force and state auditor report, the commission was established to provide more oversight. Today the commission has nine unpaid volunteer positions and 22 employees. In 2022 the commission emerged from a mostly positive evaluation by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
Noh said in his view, Hawaii’s charter school commission must straddle responsibilities as both enforcer and supporter, while charter schools must and do earn their autonomy through accountability. Schools with problems should keep operating as long as they are meeting agreed-upon targets for improvement, he said.
“Our position here is … how do we work with those charter schools to help them achieve these levels, especially if we’re looking at trajectory of growth? I think about a lot of schools, private or public, you know, that aren’t always meeting those standards,” Noh said. “That is definitely something that we will be grappling with as a commission staff, the accountability piece. But if you ask any charter school leader, they are very aware of what their duties are — not just academically and fiduciary, but also as being this community hub. It’s not lost on them.”
HAWAII PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS
Quick facts:
>> 1994 state law established publicly funded and tuition-free charter schools in Hawaii.
>> 37 public charter schools currently operate across Oahu, Hawaii island, Kauai, Maui and Molokai.
>> 12,427 public charter school students this year (out of the state Department of Education’s total enrollment of 167,649).
>> Funded on a per-pupil basis by the DOE, like traditional public schools; some charter schools also receive other state, federal and/or private support. For instance, since 2006 the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs has provided $21.6 million to assist 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools.
>> The State Public Charter School Commission approves applications for new charter schools and monitors the performance and legal compliance of existing charter schools.
>> Each charter school is authorized under a performance contract that covers academic, financial and organizational aspects of the school.
>> Each charter school is operated and managed by an independent governing board.
>> “No two charter schools are the same and they each offer a different learning environment; some offer blended learning, others focus on Hawaiian language immersion or arts integration, and yet others offer project based learning or a Waldorf model of learning.” (Source: State Public Charter School Commission website)
>> More information: chartercommission.hawaii.gov
ED NOH AT A GLANCE
>> Position: First permanent executive director of the state Public Charter School Commission since 2020, following a nationwide search
>> Experience includes: State Department of Education superintendent for the Castle-Kahuku complex area, complex academic officer at the DOE Windward Oahu district, executive director of the DOE Leadership Institute, principal of Kaneohe Elementary School, school director of Ka‘ohao Public Charter School, teacher in Bellevue School District and Seattle public schools in Washington state
>> Education: Master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies, University of Washington; doctorate in professional educational practice, University of Hawaii at Manoa
>> Age: 53
>> Background: Born and raised in California; currently resides in Moanalua
>> Family: Married 30 years; two grown sons who graduated from the public Moanalua High School
>> Why he believes in public education: “I’ve always believed school is going to be that great equalizer, kind of the social justice movement of our time. I’m a second-generation Korean American. My parents immigrated, and so they really drilled into us that school was going to be kind of the platform for us.”
