Kākau Mea Nui 2.0 (Writing Matters)

Kākau Mea Nui 2.0 (Writing Matters) Logo

Project Dates

2021 – August 2024

Funding Source

US Department of Education

About

Kākau Mea Nui 2.0 (Writing Matters) [KMN 2.0] project for Advancing Academic Success of Native Hawaiian Students provides teachers professional development addressing effective inclusive, culturally responsive instructional strategies to increase the writing performance of Native Hawaiian students. The project builds on the success of the Kākau Mea Nui (KMN) project and its positive impact on Hawaiʻi public schools. Like its forerunner, this project, from the Native Hawaiian Education Program, U.S. Department of Education, is aimed at improving the writing of K-8 students. KMN 2.0 offers rigorous, culturally based professional development for teachers across content areas. Students are given meaningful, structured experiences to develop competency in core writing abilities in ways that benefit students’ educational experience across subject areas. These evidence-based activities are aligned with Common Core Standards. At its completion, the goal of the project is to both: (1) Give teachers the tools they need to help students’ writing flourish; and (2) Create engaging curricular material and training that can later continue to serve other schools and teachers.

Principal Investigator

Holly Manaseri, PhD, is an Associate faculty member at the University of Hawaii’s Center on Disability Studies and serves as the interim director for the Center on Disability Studies. Dr. Manaseri teaches in the graduate Disability Studies program. She has over 30 years of experience working in k12 schools and higher education focused on teacher and school leader preparation for inclusive, accessible and caring school communities.

Contact

hmanaser@hawaii.edu

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Primary Contact

Contact

rraphael@hawaii.edu

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Team

Maya Matheis, Ph.D., M.S.W., is a licensed clinical psychologist and researcher at the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. She completed her Masters in Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, her PhD in clinical psychology at Louisiana State University, and her postdoctoral training at the UC Davis MIND Institute, where she completed the Autism Research Training Program (ARTP). Her clinical specialization is in the assessment and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Her research interests focus on community-based implementation of interventions for ASD, with particular emphasis on training and…

Contact

(808) 956-2065

mmatheis@hawaii.edu

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Lauren Lum Ho, EdD, MSW, is the Interim Director of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) Center on Disability Studies (CDS), a research unit in the College of Education. Lum Ho has a background in social work and obtained a doctorate in education in 2023 from the University of Memphis with a focus on instructional design and technology. Lum Ho works across a variety of projects at CDS as an instructional designer to create effective, meaningful online learning environments in alignment with the course content and target audience. Lum Ho is also the instructor for a foundational course in…

Contact

laurenlh@hawaii.edu

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Contact

davinkt@hawaii.edu

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Website

Kākau Mea Nui 2.0 (Writing Matters)

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