Third- and fourth-graders in Hawaiian language immersion programs could soon be taking state assessment tests developed in Hawaiian — instead of controversial English translations — under a bill moving through the Legislature.
Students now are given a straight English-to-Hawaiian translation of the Hawaii State Assessment developed in 2011, which Hawaiian language advocates say contains serious grammar and vocabulary errors and has resulted in poor test results.
The test is federally mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act to measure how well students are learning.
Previously, immersion students took a test developed and scored by the language program’s teachers, but it didn’t meet federal standards.
Ka Papahana Kaiapuni Hawaii, the DOE’s Hawaiian language immersion program, educates about 2,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade at 21 public schools.
Because English isn’t formally introduced until the fifth grade, third- and fourth-grade immersion students take the translated version of the assessment, while older students take the English version.
Some teachers and parents had been so frustrated with the translated tests that talk of boycotting the assessments surfaced last year.
"It would be absurd to have our English-medium students evaluated by badly translated versions of Spanish or French testing models, yet that is now the setting in Hawaiian immersion schools," University of Hawaii at Manoa Hawaiian language professor Puakea Nogelmeier wrote in support of House Bill 224.
The bill would require the state Department of Education to develop annual assessments in language arts, math and science in the Hawaiian language for grades 3 through 6. The DOE would need to work with the Hawaiian language community, including the immersion program schools, the Hawaiian language programs at UH-Manoa and Hilo, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
The bill was unanimously approved Wednesday by a joint panel of the Senate Education and Hawaiian Affairs committees. It still needs to be heard by the Ways and Means Committee.
Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi testified in person in support of the bill.
She said the proposed state budget currently includes $1 million for the effort in the upcoming fiscal year and another $1 million the following year.
The joint Senate committee amended the bill to include a suggestion by OHA that the tests be phased in beginning with third- and fourth-graders in the 2015-16 school year, and in subsequent years for older students.
