Holding signs that read, "No more unfair testing," hundreds of Hawaiian-immersion students and supporters gathered on the lawn of the Department of Education building Tuesday to call for the development of standardized assessments in the Hawaiian language.
"We’re not saying we don’t want to be tested. We’re saying the instrument has to be appropriate," said Kamoa‘e Walk, chairman of ‘Aha Kauleo, the statewide advisory council for the DOE’s Hawaiian-language immersion program.
The rally, which culminated with sign-waving at the state Capitol, was organized out of frustration over the current testing procedures for Hawaiian-immersion students: Children in the third and fourth grades take the Hawaii State Assessment translated into Hawaiian, while older students take the English version.
Charles Naumu, principal of Anuenue School, a Hawaiian-immersion school in Palolo, said the translated HSA is not culturally authentic or accurate, and thus essentially tests children on things they have not learned.
He also said Hawaiian-immersion students begin receiving formal English instruction in fifth grade, the same year that they are expected to take the English HSA for the first time.
"We’re not making progress under the current arrangement," Naumu said.
Addressing the rally Tuesday, Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said she understands the concerns voiced by parents and teachers — and is working to figure out how to address them.
"Right now I don’t have a solution — not one that’s going to make everything right," she told the crowd gathered in front of the Liliuokalani building. "But I have an open door. I think you have a message that needs to be shared."
After the rally, Matayoshi said the difficulty in developing a Hawaiian-language test has been coming up with something that passes federal muster, especially in a time of fiscal constraint.
The state had an assessment that was developed in Hawaiian — called the Hawaiian Aligned Assessment Portfolio Assessment — but had to discontinue using it, in part because it ran out of testing questions (because ones that had been used could not be reused).
The DOE plans to set aside $2 million in the upcoming biennium to develop a Hawaiian-language assessment, but Matayoshi said it is still not clear what that test will look like or whether it will be translated.
Those funds will likely go to an assessment to be used in the 2014-15 school year.
Keoni Inciong, educational specialist with the DOE’s Hawaiian Education Programs Section, said what test Hawaiian-immersion students take matters because if they perform poorly it not only reflects on them, but also on their schools and on their teachers.
At Anuenue School, for example, just one of the 24 fourth-graders who took the Hawaiian HSA was proficient in reading, and five were proficient in math.
Two of 24 third-graders who took the translated test were proficient in reading, and 16 third-graders were proficient in math.
In December the statewide advisory council urged parents to have their children not take the translated versions of the HSA, something Inciong said many parents have done.
The rally Tuesday in Honolulu coincided with similar gatherings on Maui, Hawaii island and Molokai.
