State leaders in Hawaii are building a foundation for high school transformation by adopting seat time flexibility, developing a set of college and career readiness competencies, and ensuring that students who earn a diploma are able to apply to the state’s institutions of higher education. At the heart of this work is the state’s Portrait of a Graduate, which captures the six learning outcomes—the Nā Hopena A‘o, or HĀ—that schools should help students develop throughout the course of their K-12 journey. Developed through a community-driven process of dialogue and engagement, the outcomes include the knowledge, competencies, skills, and dispositions that students should have by the time they leave high school.

Hawaii law codifies that credit towards graduation is “an expression of progress and learning rather than merely time spent," providing significant flexibility for communities interested in rethinking the high school experience. To build on this foundation, state leaders could explore opportunities to launch a statewide initiative with dedicated resources to incentivize community-led high school redesign.