STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3012

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2875

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 2875 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE IMMERSION PROGRAM,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the:

 

     (1)  Reading, math, science, and other assessments administered to students in grades three through six of the Department of Education's Hawaiian Language Immersion Program to be developed originally in the Hawaiian language; and

 

     (2)  Board of Education to adopt rules establishing procedures for the development of these assessments in collaboration with the Hawaiian language community.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Na Leo Kakoo Executive Board, the Parent Group of Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Anuenue; Ke Kula O Samuel M. Kamakau; and sixty-three individuals. 

 

     Your Committees find that in the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years, third and fourth grade Hawaiian language immersion students took a translated version of the general state assessment.  Due to a number of translation problems with the test, as well as community concerns, a new assessment was developed originally in the Hawaiian language and administered to Hawaiian language immersion program students.  However, the Department of Education recently began administering a Hawaiian translation of the general state assessment, despite widespread concern about the translated assessment.  An English reading test translated into Hawaiian does not necessarily measure reading proficiency in either English or Hawaiian and, therefore, does not accurately measure student achievement.  Your Committees further find that the public school system as a whole could suffer from what might appear to be poor student performance on these highly questionable tests.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:  

 

     (1)  Clarifying the purpose section;

 

     (2)  Amending the assessment development requirements to specify that the Department of Education shall develop assessments in the Hawaiian language:

 

          (A)  In language arts and mathematics to be administered to Hawaiian Language Immersion Program students in grades three through six; and

 

          (B)  In science to be administered to Hawaiian Language Immersion Program students in grade four;

 

     (3)  Requiring that the assessments be administered annually beginning in school year 2014-2015;

 

     (4)  Specifying that the annual assessments shall:

 

          (A)  Align with common core state standards or the Hawaii content and performance standards III, as appropriate; and

 

          (B)  Comply with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964, as amended;

 

     (5)  Clarifying that ancillary assessment materials and tools that are made available to students taking the general state assessment shall also be made available to students in the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program to the extent that these materials and tools can be adapted for use in the Hawaiian language; 

 

     (6)  Requiring the Department of Education, with the assistance of the Hawaiian language community, including the Aha Kauleo Kaiapuni Hawaii, members of the Hawaiian language immersion program schools, the Hawaiian language programs at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and other Hawaiian language community organizations, to establish procedures for the development of the assessments;

 

     (7)  Clarifying that the Department of Education shall report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013 only on the status of the procedures for the development of assessments in the Hawaiian language, rather than on the development and administration of the assessment; and

 

     (8)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency. 

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2875, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2875, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Education,

 

____________________________

JILL TOKUDA, Chair

 

____________________________

BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA, Chair