STAND. COM. REP. 2495

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2069

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2069 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE HAWAII TEACHER STANDARDS BOARD,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board to implement and administer a support program for national board certification candidates in the Department of Education.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Education, Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, and three national board certified teachers.

Your Committee finds that teacher quality is of the utmost importance to student achievement. A program dedicated to supporting those Department of Education teachers who attempt to earn the highest level of certification possible, national board certification, will be a tremendous asset in improving teacher quality. It is also an important tool for teacher retention as well, in that it allows teachers to advance in their profession without leaving the classroom. This would aid in alleviating the teacher shortage.

Your Committee further finds that teachers who have been through the extremely rigorous process of application for national board certification universally consider it to be a professional development exercise of the highest value. This, too, improves teacher quality, not merely by accrediting outstanding teaching practice but by actually cultivating it in the application process itself as well.

Your Committee has amended the measure by adding "candidate recognition initiatives" to the list of support activities authorized to be conducted by the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board under this program.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2069, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2069, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair