HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

246

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE PRESIDENT AND the CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES TO MAKE CERTAIN MODIFICATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS WITH RESPECT TO THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT OF 2001.

 

WHEREAS, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Act) applies to all states accepting federal Title I education funds, including Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the Act mandates every public school to make adequate yearly progress to achieve one hundred per cent student proficiency in math, reading, language arts, and science by school year 2013-2014; and

WHEREAS, the Act may identify an entire school as failing to make adequate yearly progress based on the progress of any one subgroup of the school; and

WHEREAS, certain subgroups, including students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency, have extreme difficulty achieving adequate yearly progress under the Act, due to the significant challenges they face and benchmarks and time frames that are unrealistic for the subgroup; and

WHEREAS, the Act greatly expands the authority of the United States Department of Education and the services provided to Hawaii's students, without a commensurate increase in federal funding, thus requiring substantial supplemental state funding for its implementation; and

WHEREAS, the Act bypasses critical stakeholders in Hawaii's public education policy making process, negating state and board control, and undermining the State's ability to adequately provide a system of public education; and

WHEREAS, the Act does not encompass a new goal handed down from the national level, but merely crystallizes efforts that were underway in the State of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the Act may cause unintended consequences to Hawaii's education system by redirecting resource allocations in a manner that reduces the chances of improvement for schools that truly need it, amending state and local curriculum, standards, and assessments, and mislabeling schools and students, thus resulting in a less effective method of measuring the achievements of Hawaii's students; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature, on behalf of the people of the State of Hawaii, respectfully requests the President and the Congress of the United States to:

(1) Substantially increase federal funding for the Act in amounts consistent with the level of programs and systems needed to accurately reflect student, school, and school-district performance and to pay the costs of making students proficient;

(2) Allow the states greater flexibility in meeting adequate yearly progress provisions;

(3) Allow the states flexibility in determining the percentage of special education students who can be tested according to their ability, not their grade level;

(4) Allow the states to determine the appropriate time to use native-language tests and English-only tests;

(5) Allow the states greater flexibility in determining whether certain teacher categories, such as special education teachers, are highly qualified;

(6) Allow the states to decide the order of interventions when a school is identified as being in need of improvement;

(7) Recognize that, under our federal system of government, education is primarily a state and local responsibility and that Hawaii should control its public education budget and allocate education dollars according to its priorities and needs, driven by decision making of Hawaii's Board of Education;

(8) Develop a transparent and uniform process for considering waiver applications;

(9) Reexamine the financial consequences for states that would choose not to participate; and

(10) Conduct an implementation study, including Congressional hearings to be completed by July 1, 2006, regarding federal and state funding, adequate yearly progress provisions, and other significant provisions of the Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, the Chairperson of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Education, and the Chairperson of the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

No Child Left Behind Act