U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Waipahu High School today to tour with students and teachers and praise the school and state for making notable strides under Hawaii’s $75 million federal Race to the Top grant. 

Earlier this morning he also visited Waianae’s Ka Waihona o ka Naauao Public Charter School, where he discussed among other Native Hawaiian education issues controversies over standardized testing in the English language.

At Waipahu High, the state’s second-largest public school serving more than 2,400 students, Duncan toured different science classrooms and heard from several students about their learning. 

Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Hawaii Department of Education Kathryn Matayoshi were also in attendance. 

Students one by one gave Duncan and the governor presentations on their science projects and the school’s open-air laboratories, including gardens with produce ranging from basil to carrots and tubs with running water and thousands of tilapia. Students engage in hands on learning at these stations. 

Waipahu is broken up into six “smaller learning communities” in which students follow tailored academic pathways, including one devoted to natural resources and one focused on health services. 

The presentations were meant to show the leaders the extent and cultural relevancy of the school’s science, technology, engineering and math program. 

The U.S. Department of Education recently released a status report on the state’s progress over its third year of the four-year Race to the Top grant, which was all in all was awarded to 11 states and Washington, D.C.

The report highlighted Hawaii as a role model for other states, pointing to its teacher evaluation system and progress at Hawaii’s most struggling schools. The recognition came as a surprise to many who questioned the state’s public schools, particularly after the federal government threatened to put the grant on hold in late 2011 in response to the academic stagnation at some of them and issues with the teacher’s union. 

“The only way you get better is to challenge the status quo,” Duncan said in a netted lanai surrounded by students, teachers and a variety of aquaculture and agriculture stations. Hawaii is one of the “fastest-improving” states “by any objective measure.”

Its schools perform in the top 10 percent in the nation, he said. 

“I’m so thrilled they made us look smart,” Duncan said jokingly, comparing Hawaii to other states, later citing Hawaii’s student diversity as an asset. “In many places this doesn’t happen.”

He said he’d still like to see Hawaii improve its graduation and college-going rates. 

Matayoshi said the Race to the Top grant was “catalytic” in nature. Hawaii is the only state out of 12 to opt out of a free extension next year from the federal government on its grant. 

About 70 percent of Waipahu High’s students are of Filipino ancestry, and nearly six out of every 10 students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

One of the students to present to and speak with Duncan was a girl who moved to Hawaii from Philippines with her family four years ago and recently accepted a full scholarship to attend Columbia University to study molecular biology

Reading proficiency among 10th graders rose to 69 percent in 2013 from 58 percent in 2011, while math proficiency jumped to 47 percent from 26 percent, according to the state DOE. College-going rate increased to 58 percent from 49 percent during the same period.

Pila Wilson of Punana Leo, a Hawaiian language advocacy and education organization whose schools include Keaau’s Nawahiokalaniopuu Iki and its satellite campus in Waianae, said he felt encouraged by Duncan’s response concerns expressed about the language medium of Hawaii’s standardized tests. 

Wilson said he got word from a Punana Leo employee that Duncan seemed very interested in the issue and that the secretary will be looking into various Native Hawaiian charter school issues once he returns to Washington. 

Hawaii is the last state in the country to garner a visit from Duncan. The last education secretary to visit Hawaii was Richard Riley in 1994. 

Photo: Arne Duncan speaks with Abercrombie and a Waipahu High teacher (top). Duncan learns about aquaponics from a Waipahu High student.