Highlights of Exemplary Practices Aligned with the 18 Characteristics of Successful Middle Schools

ʻĪao Intermediate School brings the core values of The Successful Middle School: This We Believe to life by purposefully fostering an environment where every one of our students can thrive. Guided by the vision of being Connected, Capable, and Contributing, the school serves as “The Place to Be" for young adolescents in Central Maui.

Characteristic 2:

The school environment is welcoming, inclusive and affirming for all.

ʻĪao School strives to create a welcoming, inclusive, and affirming environment where students build connections and experience personal growth as learners.

Staff works together to maintain a well kept, safe setting with procedures, curriculum, instruction and programs in place to ensure no student feels isolated during the middle school years. It all begins the moment students are welcomed on campus at the start of their sixth grade year. Through simple daily rituals across the school, like personal greetings and Advisory check-ins, to team-wide common practices that create a place where every student is supported,

we make our school “The Place to Be”.

Through a culture of adult advocacy, ʻĪao ensures no student navigates these bridge years alone. Daily Advisory classes provide a dedicated safety net where students bond with a mentor and peers. This sense of being known is reinforced by interdisciplinary teams. These "schools-within-a-school" allow teachers to collaborate closely, ensuring that each child has a champion monitoring both their academic progress and emotional wellbeing.

The school is committed to offering a wide range of opportunities that meet the individual needs and interests of each student.

This includes Transition to Middle School class

for grade six students, RTI reading and math workshops, after school clubs, Virtual Academy, a variety of choice elective classes, a range of services for students with identified needs, project based and service learning opportunities, Sources of Strength groups, and others.

Parents and community members are welcomed on campus for project based collaboration, community traditions and milestone events such as Monster Mash, the 6th Grade Ho’ike, and Service-Learning Showcase events. By students collectively demonstrating their learning to an authentic audience, they celebrate a connection and feed into a culture that feels good to be a part of. Besides weaving a sense of ’ohana into the school year, these opportunities foster teamwork and student voice. ʻĪao School is designed to ensure that our students develop both strong connections to peers and community, and to their unique identities.

Characteristic 10: Health, Wellness, and social-emotional competence are supported in curricula, schoolwide programs, and related policies.

The foundation for supporting student wellness is rooted in the school’s 3C Vision (Connected, Capable, Contributing) and the HĀ (Nā Hopena Aʻo) outcomes that seeks to strengthen six outcomes in every student: a sense of Belonging, Responsibility, Excellence, Aloha, Total Wellbeing, and Hawaiʻi.

The school has identified Self-Management and Emotion Regulation as a critical student learning need and provides instruction to help students acquire skills to manage emotions, build a growth mindset, set positive goals, and show empathy.

Health, wellness, and social-emotional competence are integrated into the school’s core philosophy and are supported through a dedicated social-emotional curriculum, health classes for grade 6 and 7, physical education classes for grades 6-8,

schoolwide behavioral programs, balanced restorative discipline policies, and a Health curriculum that teaches positive communication skills.

Students stay energized, develop social-emotional competence, and learn sportsmanship through interscholastic athletics and various other intramural activities with Advisory peers. Beyond the physical, the school proactively builds resilience using a weekly Advisory schedule to teach relationship skills and responsible decision-making. The weekly Advisory schedule includes dedicated days for SEL where strategies like community circles and other intentional curricula build the student toolkit for thriving in middle school.

Iao School uses a proactive, three-tiered PBIS framework to establish positive behavior as the norm. This includes teaching and reinforcing our quarterly values of Aloha, Kuleana (Responsibility), Hoʻomau (Persevere), and Kūlia i ka Nuʻu (Strive to Succeed).

Tiered programs such as Sources of Strength, Peer Mediation, and after-school UPLINK exist to find and support students of varying need.

Positive character and Service are reinforced through school-wide systems of recognition like Pono Points and ʻĪao Renaissance.

Characteristic 3:

Every student’s academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate.

To ensure every student is guided by a dedicated adult advocate, the school utilizes a multi-layered structure of Advisory mentorship, interdisciplinary "teaming," and data-driven support systems that align with the school’s core 3C Vision (Connected, Capable, Contributing).

The cornerstone of student advocacy is the Advisory program, designed to provide a nurturing environment where every student has at least one adult who "knows, cares about, and supports the student's academic and personal development".

Advisory classes meet daily and are the cornerstone of adult advocacy at ʻĪao School. Fun strategies like Circle Mondays and Friday Intramurals build positive, supportive relationships and a sense of belonging. This is a place for students to share, listen and discuss.

Advisors serve as academic coaches, guiding students through online literacy and math interventions. They also use the Advisory block to provide immediate interventions and support for students who are struggling or failing classes.

Advocacy extends beyond the individual mentor to the Interdisciplinary (ID) Team. ID Teams of teachers and counselors serve a common group of students and utilize shared planning time to synchronize interventions and collaborate around student development. Leadership structures of ID Team Leads, Counselors, and Student Activities oversee school-wide programs and activities that target the social-emotional growth of every child.