Some
Hawaiian language immersion schools are threatening to boycott a federally mandated state assessment this year, saying that its Hawaiian
translation is inaccurate and unfair.
The threats come after early results indicate that immersion students are getting significantly lower scores, educators say, now that they take the same assessment as their peers — only translated into Hawaiian.
At issue is the test given to 290 of the state’s third- and fourth-graders in Ka Papahana Kaiapuni Hawaii programs. For the last six years, they’ve taken the Hawaiian Aligned Portfolio Assessment, a test that had been developed especially for them and scored by their own teachers. But the HAPA doesn’t meet federal standards.
A potential boycott of the new test — which does comply with federal standards — could affect entire schools, which are required to take the test.
