THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	31
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO REVIEW THE USE OF the PREDICTIVE ASSESSMENT OF READING PROGRAM TO TEACH READING TO STUDENTS.

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's public school children lag far behind the national average in measures of literacy; and

     WHEREAS, in the 2002 Stanford Achievement Tests (SATs), Hawaii's public school scores remained well below the national average with verbal scores dropping one point, from four hundred sixty-three to four hundred sixty-two, while the national average is over forty points higher at five hundred four; and

     WHEREAS, new paradigms of learning need to be introduced in the classroom and at home, as the current methodologies are not helping our children learn to read at a high level of functioning; and

     WHEREAS, a new conceptual model of language acquisition being used successfully by ASSETS School in Honolulu since 1991 is the Predictive Assessment of Reading Program, which is a standardized assessment that can be administered by any teacher with thirty minutes of training, and will yield immediate assessment results that are downloaded from the Predictive Assessment Reading Program website; and

     WHEREAS, an important aspect of the Predictive Assessment Reading Program is its ability to identify students who are in a risk category and its ability to provide remedial instruction; and

     WHEREAS, ASSETS School indicated that there is a way to predict at what levels children in grades kindergarten, first, second, and third will achieve in literacy skills by the eighth grade, which is particularly important information because current policies require that children fail significantly before special instruction is available to them; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, that the Department of Education, in consultation with the Head of School of ASSETS School, is requested to conduct a review and analysis of the Predictive Assessment Reading Program to determine the feasibility of using it as a potential literacy benefit for public school teachers and students and to submit the results of the analysis to the Legislature at least twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2008; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Superintendent of Education, the Chairperson of the Board of Education, and to the Head of School of ASSETS School.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Predictive Assessment Reading Program; ASSETS School; Study