112             
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.C.R. NO.            
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION

  REQUESTING THE APPOINTMENT OF A TEMPORARY ADVISORY COMMISSION
    TO DEVELOP AN EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM THAT MEETS
    ACCEPTED STANDARDS OF VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY AND
    PROVIDES USEFUL INFORMATION TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS.



 1        WHEREAS, accountability describes a relationship between
 2   two parties in which four conditions apply:  one party expects
 3   the other to perform a service or accomplish a goal; the party
 4   performing the activity accepts the legitimacy of the other's
 5   expectation; the party performing the activity derives some
 6   benefits from the relationship; and the party for whom the
 7   activity is performed has some capacity to affect the other's
 8   benefits; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, accountability is the essence of a contractual
11   relationship in which both parties have obligations and derive
12   benefits.  People can be accountable only if they feel bound by
13   some agreement that establishes a fair exchange of benefits and
14   obligations between two parties; and
15   
16        WHEREAS, throughout history education policy has advanced
17   through incremental or trial and error stages, sometimes called
18   "disjointed incrementalism".  Accountability is an excellent
19   example of this process.  While accountability has recently
20   been "rediscovered" and has gone through yet another
21   transformation and refinement, it actually has a long history
22   of use, misuse, and controversy; and
23   
24        WHEREAS, with the arrival of the 20th century, scientific
25   measurement and appropriate grade placement were featured from
26   1915 to 1930, and this movement overlapped with the 1920s "cult
27   of efficiency", which applied business cost-accounting
28   techniques to the solution of many education problems.  It
29   would be another half-century, however, before educators
30   witnessed the advent of the U.S. accountability movement's
31   bible, Leon Lessinger's book, Every Kid a Winner, which
32   appeared in 1970 and stressed the same kind of cost-accounting
33   strategies that had been popular decades earlier; and
34   

 
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 1        WHEREAS, like his predecessors, Lessinger wanted learning
 2   stated in quantifiable terms that could be related to cost
 3   statements.  However, Lessinger's thinking was also in tune
 4   with that of his own era, since the 1960s and early 1970s
 5   featured Program Planning Budgeting Systems and Management by
 6   Objectives as favored strategies for accountability.  These
 7   were followed in 1977 by President Carter's Zero Based
 8   Budgeting.  All of these budget techniques were resisted by
 9   school boards and local educators and have disappeared with
10   barely any residue; and
11   
12        WHEREAS, in sum, both the early 20th century and the
13   recent accountability movements highlighted:  (1) business as
14   the model for educators to emulate; (2) objective measures as
15   the primary criterion for educational evaluation; and (3)
16   sophisticated accounting procedures and cost control as crucial
17   for improving education; and
18   
19        WHEREAS, beginning in 1983, however, school reforms
20   brought with them still another wave of accountability
21   legislation, focusing this time on such concepts as school
22   report cards, merit schools, outcome-based accreditations, and
23   interstate achievement comparisons.  While the names have
24   changed, these concepts are offshoots of the historical
25   evolution; and
26   
27        WHEREAS, while history demonstrates that effective and
28   long-lasting accountability programs are possible, it also
29   shows that maintaining them requires both a sophisticated
30   understanding of past experience and a committed political
31   constituency.  In addition, even well-designed accountability
32   techniques must be implemented through a loosely coupled
33   administrative system that includes a complex web of state and
34   local school control.  That makes it difficult to predict the
35   impact of a specific accountability policy upon classroom
36   practice and provides numerous political constituencies as
37   potential roadblocks; and
38   
39        WHEREAS, any accountability system--whether it is
40   developed by the Legislature, the Board of Education, or the
41   Governor--needs to meet accepted standards of validity and
42   reliability and provide useful information if it is to be
43   embraced by all stakeholders and sustained over time.  These

 
 
 
 
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 1   standards, which also apply to the evaluation of educational
 2   personnel and programs, are described by the American
 3   Educational Research Association, the American Psychological
 4   Association, and the National Council on Measurement in
 5   Education, in Standards for Educational and Psychological
 6   Testing (1985); and
 7   
 8        WHEREAS, the Legislature, the Board of Education, and the
 9   Governor were never able to embrace--and consequently, were
10   never able to sustain--previous educational accountability
11   systems because the systems failed to meet accepted standards
12   of validity and reliability or provide useful information, or
13   both.  Despite recent educational reforms intended to make
14   schools, the Department of Education, and the Board of
15   Education more accountable to the public for student
16   achievement, the Legislature and the Governor continue to be
17   dissatisfied with the results--as evidenced by repeated
18   legislative attempts to change the Board of Education from an
19   elected board to an appointed board and the proposed creation
20   of "New Century Schools" by the Governor outside the authority
21   of the Board and Department; and
22   
23        WHEREAS, in order to break this endless stalemate, which
24   resembles a war of attrition rather than cooperative and
25   constructive decisionmaking, it is necessary for the
26   Legislature, the Board of Education, and the Governor to lay
27   aside their differences and work together to develop an
28   educational accountability system that meets accepted standards
29   of validity and reliability and provides useful information to
30   all stakeholders; now, therefore,
31   
32        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
33   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
34   of 1999, the Senate concurring, that the President of the
35   Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the
36   Governor, and the Chairperson of the Board of Education are
37   requested to appoint a temporary advisory commission to develop
38   an educational accountability system that meets accepted
39   standards of validity and reliability and provides useful
40   information to all stakeholders; and
41   

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 1        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the advisory commission is
 2   requested to be comprised of not more than eight voting
 3   members:  two of whom are appointed by the President of the
 4   Senate; two of whom are appointed by the Speaker of the House
 5   of Representatives; two of whom are appointed by the Governor;
 6   two of whom are appointed by the Chairperson of the Board of
 7   Education; and
 8   
 9        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Superintendent of
10   Education is requested to chair the commission and to serve as
11   an ex officio nonvoting member of the commission; and
12   
13        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education,
14   the Department of Budget and Finance, the Department of Human
15   Resources Development, and the Legislative Reference Bureau are
16   requested to provide technical assistance to the commission on
17   such matters as the financial system and organizational
18   structure of the Department of Education, and the
19   qualifications of key appointed and tenured individuals within
20   the Department of Education, the state personnel system, and
21   legislative drafting, respectively; and
22   
23        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the commission is requested to
24   submit a status report to the Legislature not less than twenty
25   days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2000,
26   describing the progress of the commission; and a final report
27   to the Legislature not less than twenty days prior to the
28   convening of the Regular Session of 2001, containing the
29   findings and recommendations of the commission; and
30   
31        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
32   Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the
33   Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the
34   Governor, the Chairperson of the Board of Education, the
35   Superintendent of Education, the Director of Finance, the
36   Director of Human Resources Development, and the Director of
37   the Legislative Reference Bureau.
38 
39 
40 
41                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________