Last year, Hawaiian Language Immersion schools boycotted the newly developed state test because they said it contained inaccuracies in the translation to Hawaiian.

Today at the House Education Committee, parents, students, educators and advocates for the Hawaiian community have come out in force to support a proposal to develop a state assessment in the Hawaiian language for grades 3 and 4.

Several have appealed to the fact that Hawaiian is one of the state’s two official languages and it therefore deserves its own curriculum development and testing. 

“It is a known fact that Native Hawaiian children in public school system have not been faring well,” said one veteran educator, laying some of the blame on the fact that the Hawaiian language is not taken seriously.