KĀʻEO Development
Why have a Hawaiian language assessment?
Kaiapuni schools are part of the state education system.
Kaiapuni schools are required to follow student testing requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which mandates annual testing. Kaiapuni schools face a unique challenge in administering statewide summative assessments because academic content is taught in Hawaiian. In the past, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) implemented different assessments for Kaiapuni students, including a translation of the Hawaiʻi State Assessment (HSA) and the Hawaiian Aligned Portfolio Assessment (HAPA). However, there were concerns with both.
Previous assessments (i.e., translatedHSA, HAPA) did not provide acceptable accountability measures or did not sufficiently reflect Hawaiian culture.
The Kaiapuni community advocated for a fair and equitable assessment. In 2014, HIDOE contracted with the University of Hawaiʻi to develop the KĀʻEO. As a result, Kaiapuni students in grades 3–8 now engage in culturally appropriate Native language assessments in Hawaiian language arts, math, and science that are of sufficient technical quality to meet ESSA requirements (University of Hawaiʻi, 2020).
“The current system of evaluation and assessment employed by the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) is beginning to address aspects of the cultural and educational needs of Kaiapuni. In 2015, the HIDOE received a waiver from the USDOE large-scale assessment requirement for Kaiapuni…The process places value on community-level knowledge and skills in building an appropriate assessment, including input from school-level and local practitioners as the best sources of knowledge. This kind of collaboration should be the model for test design for any indigenous language movement"
KĀʻEO Development and Assessment Cycle
KĀʻEO Student Learning Outcomes
The KĀʻEO Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) ensure that students enrolled in Kaiapuni schools have rigorous academic expectations grounded in the Hawaiian language and worldview. The KĀʻEO SLOs were carefully co-constructed with educators and community members to include important Hawaiian cultural content and worldview. This video of the Science SLO Development provides an example of how teachers and community members are coming together to create SLOs.
“Assessment is a key element of Kaiapuni. It guides and binds us to our goals and values. It drives our curriculum and defines our teaching practices.... Due to the vital importance of assessment, Kaiapuni strives to develop and implement a more appropriate method of assessment through partnership with all Kaiapuni stakeholders.... The process places value on community-level knowledge and skills in building an appropriate assessment, including input from school-level and local practitioners as the best sources of knowledge. This kind of collaboration should be the model for test design for any indigenous language movement.”
Test Development
Test development began and continues as a collaborative effort between educators, cultural experts, language experts, and the community. This collaboration allows for the identification of priorities for the assessments as reflected in the assessment blueprints as well as the generation of assessment content.
For example, a meeting was held with Hawaiian science experts and Hawaiian cultural and language experts to develop ideas or "seeds" for item development. This resulted in an array of content. Specifically, the scientific concept of light waves in a Hawaiian context might focus on how these waves penetrate water affecting the marine life that lives in different depths of the ocean because of the light transmission in the water (i.e., different things live and grow in shallow and deep water because of the way light waves move through water).
Another scientific example of potential and kinetic energy is Lele Kawa and how cliff jumping at different heights illustrates differences in potential energy.
“As shown in the meaning of the word 'paka,' or to assess and criticize for a positive outcome, assessment must be culturally linked and associated to Hawaiian ways and beliefs. Kaiapuni assessment starts with the knowledge and beliefs of the Hawaiian language and culture and move forward from there.”
Item Writing
Educators and Hawaiian Language experts form the KĀʻEO core item writing teams. Teachers, language experts, and University staff work to develop items and passages written in the Hawaiian context. The result is the ongoing construction of items that measure KĀʻEO SLOs and reflect Hawaiian priorities and worldviews. The items were developed by working with Kaiapuni teachers using a rigorous proces.
“[Item review is] very important - we need to be as fair as possible given the different demographics of our student population - and good to have eyes from the different areas looking at these items from their own place.”
Item Review
Every new test item is reviewed before it is placed on an operational test by a panel of Kaiapuni teachers. Approximately 30 teachers have gathered for multiple sessions to review items. These sessions provide a forum for teachers to openly discuss the fairness of the items. Details of these meetings can be found in the Item Review Reports (2021, 2022).
“It is important yet it is so difficult when it comes to culture sensitivity as our schools all come from different portions of the state and have different values.”
Administration
Schools administer the test to students annually. The community has come together in supporting KĀʻEO administration to provide a culturally appropriate indicator of studentsʻ academic progress. The importance of participation is discussed in a meeting of community members.
Continuous Improvement
Research is key to improving KĀʻEO and keeping the assessment aligned with the community-developed Theory of Action. Research focuses on the degree to which KĀʻEO is meeting the needs of the community. For example, teachers and students participate in cognitive interviews, external validity, and community validity studies.
Community validity results indicate that teachers value the information but also would like additional growth data to see how students are improving over time.
“[We need] continual reminders of the foundation of KĀʻEO and the goal of Kaiapuni…[we need to] grow together and support each other in teaching and learning.”
Communication of Results
The final step is working with the Kaiapuni community to provide the most relevant and important information to them. Teachers, parents, and stakeholders guide the program toward meaningful data collection and reporting. KĀʻEO has led the way for Hawaiʻi in collecting data during the pandemic to better understand how teachers were creatively and flexibly navigating the challenges to better support students. Examples of student, school, and state reports provide clear results and context for stakeholders. Opportunity to learn (OTL) data (2021, 2022) are also collected yearly to understand the context of learning in Kaiapuni schools.
For more information about Kaiapuni school performance use the Hawaiʻi Department of Education’s school finder to find STRIVE HI school reports or the Accountability Data Center website for historical information.
Kaiapuni Community
KĀʻEO would not be possible without the collaboration and support from the Hawaiian Language Immersion community. The community provides the expertise essential for every step of this assessment cycle.
Partners
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