STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2857

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 107

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Education and Housing, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 107 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING A REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE REGARDING INFORMATION ON THE PUBLIC SCHOOL JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to request a report to the Legislature regarding information on the public school junior kindergarten program.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by two state agencies, one private organization, and one individual.  Comments were submitted by one private organization.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that this measure addresses some of the informational needs to improve the public school junior kindergarten program.  Testifiers on this measure proposed amendments to include the Early Learning Council as a collaborator on the data collection efforts proposed by this measure and to keep the requests for data in line with the data currently being tracked by the Department of Education.  In light of budgetary constraints on the Department, your Committee has adopted the proposed amendments but urges the Department to report junior kindergarten enrollment, promotion, and retention numbers on a school-by-school basis, which would be more valuable than aggregate data in identifying particular schools or issues for improvement.

     Your Committee also learned that the Hawaii Educational Policy Center (HEPC) is currently conducting a study, on behalf of the Department of Education, that assesses the impact of participation in a junior kindergarten program on academic progress for students who are now in grade two or three.  Data collected through HEPC's study may be reported as a part of the long-term assessment data or longitudinal data requested by this measure.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding the Early Learning Center as a collaborator with the Department of Education in reporting the data requested by this measure;

     (2)  Requesting aggregate data on junior kindergarten enrollment, promotion, and retention, including the data on a school-by-school basis to the extent possible;

     (3)  Requesting information from HEPC's study to be included in the data reported to the Legislature under this measure;

     (4)  Requesting the Department of Education and the Early Learning Council to submit to the Legislature annual reports of their interim findings and recommendations prior to the convening of the Regular Sessions of 2011 and 2012, and a final report prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013; and

     (5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 107, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 107, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair