HSTA recognizes Farrington High ‘SPEDucator’ with 2021 Pono Award

Sean Witwer, a special education math teacher at Farrington High School, is determined to narrow and ultimately close the achievement gap between students who have disabilities and those who don’t.

“I made a commitment to my principal five years ago that I would graduate five students from special education with honors. While I didn’t make my goal, three of my former freshmen graduated with honors last year. I don’t think that’s ever happened before,” Witwer said. “When they graduated, it dawned on me: now what? It wasn’t enough to graduate them with honors. It was awesome, but it wasn’t enough.”

The HSTA Pono Award recognizes an exceptional member who demonstrates the ability to lead, organize and engage others to advocate on social justice issues that impact the lives of students, fellow educators, and the communities they serve.

Witwer was selected as our 2021 Pono Award winner for his passion and advocacy to expand learning opportunities for special education students.

In order to address the frustration his students faced while learning math, Witwer created the YouTube channel Govs Math Lab, which showcases the work and stories of his students. Over the past two years, he and his students have created and uploaded 70 videos on their channel. Witwer says the platform helps his students grow both academically and personally as they develop confidence and voice.

“It’s heartbreaking to work with students who have the highest absentee rates and the lowest achievement levels and graduate rates, because they often feel there’s no hope or no one fighting for them,” Witwer said. “It’s heartbreaking that here in Hawaii, Hawaiian students are overly represented in special education. There are more Hawaiian students in special education than any other race. More needs to be done to raise the achievement levels of students in special education, and as a Hawaiian special educator, it means a lot to me to be a part of the solution.”

Witwer is a fellow in the SPEDucator Fellowship, a collective dedicated to advocating for equity in education to better serve special education students, parents, and community. He was recommended by his vice principal, Julie Ledgerwood, who said, “There are very few people I have met who have such a passion for changing the trajectory of students with disabilities.”

Through the fellowship, Witwer developed a passion project to increase opportunities for special education students to pursue higher education goals. He worked with legislators to introduce House Bill 1291, which expands the eligibility for the University of Hawaiʻi State Scholars program to students who earned at least a 3.0 GPA if they qualified for and received special education services. As of this writing, the bill is still moving through the legislature.

“If you look at the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes, when they talk about the University of Hawaiʻi State Scholars program, you have to get a 4.0 or be a valedictorian or score in the top 10 percent,” Witwer said. “Given these requirements, students with disabilities have no way of achieving ‘academic excellence.’ Yet a special education student who receives honors is incredibly rare, perhaps even more rare than a student who receives valedictorian honors. It’s important is to expand the definition of academic excellence so students with disabilities can be honored and have access to the same opportunities that other students have.”