REPORT TITLE:
Geography education


DESCRIPTION:
Appropriates funds to the Research Corporation of the University
of Hawaii to implement a geography education training and staff
development program for public school teachers based on national
geographic standards, beginning as a pilot project within the
Kailua Complex schools.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                            1749        
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the need for
 
 2 geography competence has become greater with the advancement of
 
 3 technology.  The advent of computers, the internet, and
 
 4 telecommunications has prompted a greater need to understand the
 
 5 connections between places and to recognize that the local
 
 6 affects the global and vice versa.
 
 7      The legislature finds that there is a widespread acceptance
 
 8 that being literate in geography is essential if students are to
 
 9 leave school equipped to participate responsibly in local,
 
10 national, and international affairs.  In response to Section 102
 
11 of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994, Geography for
 
12 Life: National Geography Standards 1994 was produced to identify
 
13 a set of voluntary benchmarks for schools to use to develop their
 
14 own curricula.  This has prompted the legislature's desire to
 
15 include these standards into the state's geography curriculum.
 
16      The purpose of this Act is to incorporate the national
 
17 geographic standards into the department of education's Hawaii
 
18 content of performance standards, to be achieved through
 
19 training, staff development, and state-of-the-art equipment,
 

 
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 1 materials, and resources.  As an initial step, the legislature
 
 2 proposes a pilot project to implement the national geography
 
 3 standards in all content areas statewide.  The legislature also
 
 4 proposes that the Kailua Complex schools, comprised of Waimanalo
 
 5 elementary and intermediate, Pope, Maunawili, Keolu, Enchanted
 
 6 Lake, Kaelepulu elementary schools, Kailua high school, and
 
 7 Olomana school, be the sites to align the State's curriculum with
 
 8 the national geographic standards.  The Kailua Complex's
 
 9 administrators and educators have already created the Geo-Plex
 
10 Project to bring their geography curriculum into alignment with
 
11 national performance standards and have demonstrated a readiness
 
12 and ability to proceed ahead of other schools.
 
13      SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
14 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $50,000, or so much
 
15 thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 1999-2000, for the
 
16 Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii to train and
 
17 develop educators to promote the local implementation of the
 
18 national geography standards as set forth in the Geography for
 
19 Life:  National Geography Standards 1994; provided that no funds
 
20 shall be released unless matched dollar-for-dollar by the
 
21 National Geographic Society to be used for geography education.
 
22      SECTION 4.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the
 
23 University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.
 

 
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 1      SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 1999.
 
 2 
 
 3                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________