BOE Lowers Standards

[timkona]

Hawaii Free Press reports that, during the June meeting, the Board of Education has approved a motion to lower proficiency standards for Hawaiian-languange Immersion students. Easy scoring means more students will show improvement, thereby conforming to the "No Child Left Behind" requirements.

So if we test students in their "native" language, we should not expect them to do as well???? Kinda makes sense, since the availability of books written in Hawaiian is rather limited. I don't believe there are ANY "native" Hawaiian-Language speakers. First language for most around here is English.

Liberal good intentions often have tragic consequences. I feel sorry for the kids who are being deprived of education. This is child abuse on an institutional scale. Smells fishy to me. Like somebody is consciously trying to keep Hawaiians down ie Dan Akaka. Perhaps it is Hawaiians unwittingly doing it to themselves. Self defeatism is a sneaky enemy.

This is just another example of liberal cognitive dissonance.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

No, it is typical neocon spin.

My three kids are in Hawaiian immersion and have been all of their lives. I have been quite active in that movement for 15+ years, including sitting in on and testifying at more than my share of BOE mtgs. I haven't heard this bit of news at all and you can bet I will be looking into it this week.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

This is just another example of liberal cognitive dissonance.

No, it is typical neocon spin.

...and thus we achieve equilibrium without substance.

(Yes, yes, I know...quoting out of context, blah-blah-blah...just finding the amusement where it hides from others.)

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

Which June meeting would that have been? There were eight BOE meetings in June 2006, three business meetings and five committee meetings. I think Tim means the 6/5/06 committee meeting but I am not sure. That one's meeting minutes had an item at the end that said:

V. DISCUSSION/RECOMMENDATION FOR BOARD ACTION ON THE HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT CUT SCORES

Dr. Selvin Chin-Chance reviewed the Department's PowerPoint Presentation, "Setting Proficiency Levels for the Hawaiian Aligned Portfolio Assessment" (Attachment B).

Ms. Matsumoto moved, and Ms. Knudsen seconded, to recommend to the full Board approval of the Department's Hawaiian Aligned Portfolio Assessment cut scores.

The motion carried unanimously with Dr. Ahu Isa, Ms. Cox, Mr. Harimoto, Ms. Knudsen, Ms. Matsumoto, Mr. Toguchi, and Mr. Vierling voting aye. There were no nays and no abstentions.

Is this the meeting you meant, Tim? If it is, then the "Attachment B" mentioned is the second half of this PDF file.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

Thank you Glen for digging that up.

As it stands, there aren't any Hawn-lang exams developed to test proficiency at the required grade levels, which would initially be for 3rd and 5th grades. The Hawaiian Language Immersion Program (HLIP) has for years moved the 5th grade testing year back one to 6th, and have bought the grade-appropriate version for its students. This is because the students start to learn through English in the 5th grade, and need that year to get to speed and ready for testing in the following grade. Read here.

The reasons are many, and without going too deep into it, the models most looked at for compatibility and breadth of research were the Anglo/French Immersion schools in Canada.

Interestingly enough, HLIP has been around for 20 years. Its evolution includes many new parents who were once students themselves in the program. There are many families today who choose to raise their children through the Hawaiian language as the language of the home, because they are speakers themselves who can. The growth is a fascinating one.

[Vanguard]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

I don't have Hawaiian blood in my veins, but from what I'm reading, I hope that the Hawaiians take it upon themselves to reverse this decision and ensure that their language will be passed on in a high standard, on a large sociological scale.

[timkona]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

If HLIP are adequate for educating the children, I don't quite understand the need to "get to speed" after the 5th grade.

"Getting up to speed" usually implies some level of underachievement. (at least in English, which is the native language of nearly every single HLIP student.)

Maybe it's just a concept lost in translation from one language to the next.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

K-4 is taught through Hawaiian. All subjects. The left brain subjects like makemakika and 'epekema, learning how to understand the fundamentals and mechanics of communication through kakau 'olelo, their puke mo'omana'o, pili kanaka, and learning how to express themselves through different paheona like ho'okani pila, kahaki'i, papa himeni, and ho'oikaika kino. Through Hawaiian. In lens and language. Literacy is a strong point in K-1, particularly because Hawaiian has a 1-1 letter/sound relationship. There are no exception to the rules. So the hakalama is effective. Between that and the piapa, one can see that its equivalent in English would be laddered phonics.

English reading/writing/grammar is introduced in the 5th grade and their basis of transfer is rapid. Since English is all around them, we parents in the program notice our children negotiating words that they see since they were in kindy. Folks like me take advantage of those opportunities to work with our kids, instead of waiting for school to do it all. My own son is now in the 5th grade and his English homework is intense, but has been reading the local newspaper (well, sports section) for two years and he *wants* to learn the mechanics. It is this aspect of HLIP that is the most fascinating and yet recieves the least press. These kids, whether they can articulate it or not (which is typical of their age), are negotiating sentences dually--nouns, predicates, verbs, subjects. They are thinking and conversing dually--in their Hawaiian contexts and those English ones, as most are raised in a home where one parent cannot speak Hawaiian (and unfortunately, where neither parent can!) and we aren't talking mere vocab retention. We mean fluent.

These concerns are nothing new. And for the HLIP kids, they become the foundation of wizening them up. Imagine how tough it makes you when people, out of their own ignorance of your education, question your aptitude and ability? Pretty thoughtful and pretty fearless.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

I don't have Hawaiian blood in my veins, but from what I'm reading, I hope that the Hawaiians take it upon themselves to reverse this decision and ensure that their language will be passed on in a high standard, on a large sociological scale.

HLIP isn't just for Hawaiian children. 90% of the students are, but 10% aren't. Of that other 10%, they are other Polynesians, families who have moved here from Europe and elsewhere who already had multilingual experience, and mostly locals who believe in perpetuating Hawaiian culture as their heritage. Our inclusivity is a strong point.

Oh yeah, and because Hawaiian is an official state language, your and my tax dollars allows you that right to have that chair, classroom, desk and teacher for your child. Through Hawaiian. From K-12.

[timkona]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

5 years is a long time. A lot of learning takes place during those critical years to a childs development between K and 4th Grade.

Math is universal. Can be taught in any language, as long as Base 10 math is the core, as it is everywhere on Planet Earth. That is why Math is such a pure benchmark for testing comparisons across cultures and nations. Easy to teach math in any language. So no complaints there.

English/grammar/phonics is a big part of those first 5 years. Funny how a parent can see the "benefit" of restricting their child's educational opportunity using the lens of cultural preservation/xenophobia. Just the spelling words alone, at 20 per week, is a huge loss. Over 3500 words. WOW.

Hopefully, some of those HLIP kids will get into Kamehameha Schools to make up for those first 5 years. I may not agree with the admissions policy, but the quality of the education at KS is indisputable.

It is possible that a parent does not always know, or do, what is right for their child. Me included.

Culture is something best taught by Grandma.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

Looking at the world through two lenses isn't xenophobia; it is a solid opportunity to contrast and compare.

And learning through two languages to express a similar thought has just doubled the vocabulary, not limited it.

[TuNnL]

timkona-isms

I don't believe there are ANY "native" Hawaiian-Language speakers. First language for most around here is English.

Wow, kind of amazing no one called you on this one, but what a crock of bull. Hawaiian is pretty native and definitely first language on the island of Ni‘ihau. You've been in Hawai‘i how long timkona? You really should learn more about the place you call home.

[timkona]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

Niihau....touche

When did you go there? I have never been.

[SouthKona]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

Niihau....touche

When did you go there? I have never been.

Are you insinuating that if you have not "been there", then it is to be disregarded? If that is the case, then I question if there is really a German, Russian, or Chinese language.... because I have not been to those places.

[timkona]

Re: BOE Lowers Standards

Easy SouthKona....careful with your feathers.

If one has not been to Niihau, then knowledge of the language being spoken there is merely hearsay. As a natural skeptic, I am truly curious if Hawaiian is the native language of all Niihauans. Robinson - sounds Irish or English to me.

Just askin.

And to answer tunnl, the problem is that teaching students in a language other than the native tongue requires a student to first grasp the language and then the material. Children learn best in the language they use most.

Liberalism would grasp at racial-utopian straws by trying to presume that the brown skinned child's native tongue is something other than what his mother speaks to him on a daily basis. And the percentage of folks speaking Hawaiian exclusively in the home is likely very small. Especially if there is a TV anywhere in the home.

Add to that the fact that few books are written in Hawaiian, and you have a recipe for scholastic underachievement during the most important early years of education.

I care much more for the children and their future than to limit their reading opportunities at such a young age. If you want to make a case for the language, please sit down and start writing school books in Hawaiian.