I’m concerned about a child’s reading or spelling
Learn about dyslexia, signs to notice, school conversations, screening, evaluation, and ways to support access.
Explore family next steps →Research-informed literacy · Bainbridge Island, WA · Maui, Hawaiʻi · Online
Every child deserves literacy instruction that makes sense
Lokahi Connect helps students, families, and educators investigate how English spelling reflects meaning, structure, and history, so words become more coherent and more learnable.
31%
In 2024, 31% of U.S. fourth-graders performed at or above NAEP Proficient in reading. NAEP notes that this is not the same as grade-level proficiency.
Source: NAEP 2024 reading results ↗28%
In the 2023 PIAAC assessment, 28% of U.S. adults ages 16–65 performed at Level 1 or below in literacy. This population estimate is not a diagnosis or a measure of any individual.
Source: NCES PIAAC 2023 ↗Flexible
Lokahi Connect develops student learning resources, educator learning, and open online tools. Program formats and availability vary.
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Start with what brought you here
Choose the pathway that best fits your question. Each one leads to practical information without asking you to know the right terminology first.
I want to strengthen literacy instruction
Explore educator learning, Structured Literacy, and flexible word-investigation routines grounded in evidence.
Explore educator learning →I want to support learners in my community
Find carefully selected national, Washington, Hawaiʻi, and Maui resources, plus ways to share local needs.
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The challenge
Many learners are taught to treat English as a list of rules to memorize
Letter-sound instruction matters, but it does not explain everything students need to know about how words work. Learners also need meaning, structure, grapheme function, and transfer.
Surface strategies break down
Many students can repeat a pattern they were taught, then lose the pattern when the next word changes shape or meaning.
The system feels random
When spelling is presented as rules, exceptions, and “just remember it” words, learners are left without a coherent model.
Transfer stays weak
Without visible word structure, students may decode one word correctly yet struggle to reason through related words, academic vocabulary, and spelling decisions.
A Different Learning Experience, the Lokahi WORD Project
Written language preserves connected relationships
Written language preserves relationships among meaning, morphology, grammar, spelling, history, and context. No single dimension is the sole organizing principle. Learners can enter through any of the Four Questions and move among them as the word, context, observation, and purpose require.
Meaning
What does the word mean in this construction and context?
Structure
How is the word built from a base and any affixes?
Related words
Which words share a meaningful structural relationship?
Grapheme function
How do the graphemes function in this word and family, including pronunciation evidence where relevant?
Foundations of our practice
How Lokahi Connect Teaches
Structured Word Inquiry (SWI)
We use inquiry routines such as word sums, matrices, and family investigations to make structure visible and discussable.
Peter N. Bowers is the intellectual source of SWI and the Four Questions. Bowers and Kirby (2010) introduced the term Structured Word Inquiry in a Grade 4/5 morphological vocabulary intervention.
INT-informed design
We design for cognitive variability by reducing unnecessary load, keeping routines predictable, and preserving linguistic accuracy.
Mediated learning in practice
Adults guide attention, meaning, reciprocity, and transfer so students build durable reasoning, not just short-term compliance.
What we measure
See Programs & Impact →
Growth is tracked with evidence, not slogans
We look at student work, word investigation transfer, standardized assessments where appropriate, and educator implementation evidence. When we share case stories, we do so in de-identified form and with enough context to make the evidence interpretable.
Student learning
Resources and possible instruction formats designed to make language more coherent and more transferable. Availability varies.
Educator learning
Training and coaching that help adults mediate inquiry, not just deliver rules.
Open tools
A free, web-based Student Lab with read-aloud support, adjustable speech controls, and scaffolded activities.
Launch Student Lab ↗
Invest in the work
Support literacy work that lasts
Your gift helps develop student learning resources, educator learning, and open-access tools.
Seed ($1,000)
May support student learning materials and open resources.
Root ($10,000)
May support educator learning, coaching, or curriculum development.
Canopy (Custom)
May support partnership planning, implementation design, or long-range growth.