WHEREAS, MARK R. HUNTER, a semi-retired banker from Tampa, Florida developed a business model to help improve public schools’ performances in his home state and the Midwest; and

WHEREAS, MARK R. HUNTER in 2001 developed the Hawaii Education Performance System (HEPS), which takes several techniques that the business world uses successfully to improve overall performance; and

WHEREAS, using a complex mathematical formula to analyze statistics from public schools throughout Hawaii, MARK R. HUNTER studied the strength of "remote environmental forces" that according to many educators are having significant effect on our schools’ test scores and such examples of these uncontrollable variables for school principals include enrollment at their schools, the income and education levels of the students’ parents, the involvement of the parents with their children’s general education, and the number of special education and English as a second language students at their schools; and

WHEREAS, this analysis of 234 schools in Hawaii showed a very strong significance between test scores and factors that are sometimes out of the control of the school educators which means that in the econometric model for reading scores, MARK R. HUNTER’S model could predict and determine test scores of our elementary and secondary schools one year prior to the tests being taken; and

WHEREAS, this econometric modeling allows school principals to assess just how far the schools are from their minimum level of expected performance and MARK R. HUNTER says that this effort does not offer an excuse or does not deviate from the demand for greater school accountability, rather the predicted test scores over time can be used to establish a minimum target range for the Hawaii tests; and

WHEREAS, the second step in HEPS involved an initial pilot with three schools – Holomua Elementary, Makaha Elementary and Palisades Elementary – in the 2001-2002 school year, and in the 2003 school year, HEPS now includes more than 30 schools throughout Hawaii, including a few from Oahu, Maui and the Big Island; and

WHEREAS, these 31 schools, in addition to now tracking and assessing the progress of their schools on a weekly basis are also working with MARK R. HUNTER on leadership training and school-business collaborations; and

WHEREAS, one of the events highlighting Hawaii’s Children and Youth Month in October 2002 was the selection of the 2002 Hawaii’s Outstanding Advocate for Children and Youth; and

WHEREAS, for his commitment to our schools, including providing the weekly analysis to each school, visiting each of these schools four times a year, providing leadership training to the schools, and for personally spending more than $50,000 to assist in Hawaii’s program, MARK R. HUNTER was recognized as the 2002 Hawaii’s Outstanding Advocate for Children and Youth at an awards ceremony at Washington Place on November 22, 2002; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, that this body hereby congratulates MARK R. HUNTER for receiving the 2002 Hawaii’s Outstanding Advocate for Children and Youth, and thanks him for his extraordinary effort working with our schools.

Report Title: