Senate panel rejects language arts program

Advertiser Staff

The state Senate Education and Military Affairs committee has rejected a proposal to invest state dollars in the Core Knowledge program, but senators did move forward a new draft of the bill that asks the Department of Education to establish a content-based curriculum.

The original proposal by the Hawai'i Automobile Dealers Association suggested that the state invest $1 million in a language arts program designed by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., of the University of Virginia and author of "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know."

The state also would have to seek $5 million in federal money.

Hirsch's Core Knowledge program is a rigorous research-based language arts curriculum that addresses reading comprehension at early grade levels and sustains it through elementary school.

While senators held back on endorsing any specific curriculum, SB 451 SD1 asks the DOE to establish a new research-based curriculum throughout the public school system that will develop students' critical and creative thinking skills.

Dave Rolf, executive director of HADA, is encouraged by the bill's movement.

Legislative money committees would decide how much money to spend on soliciting a curriculum.

Once they add a dollar amount to the bill, "it will leverage up to a (request for proposals) from publishers across the country who will be tasked with developing a core content reading curriculum based on the latest scientifically valid methods of teaching reading," Rolf said.

The Core Knowledge curriculum is designed to develop students' creative and critical thinking skills from the time they enter kindergarten.

Students would cover a variety of subjects that would align to state standards in literature, history, science and the arts.

Rolf argues it would improve the state's test scores and help meet federal No Child Left Behind Act requirements.

"What it does it sort of changes the lighting in the room from a 60-watt bulb, which is fine, to a 100-watt bulb that just makes everything brighter and easier to do," he said.