First Pacific Islander Head Football Coach

Congratulations to Ken Niumatalolo, named Head Football Coach at the Naval Academy! Coach Niumatalolo is the first head football coach in NCAA History from the Pacific Islander community. A native of Laie, Hawaii, he is a former assistant coach with Navy and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Coach Niumatalolo's appointment raises the question, what percentage of Pacific Islanders (PI) play in the college ranks? In the NFL? How many PI coaches are there? The Black Administrators and Coaches Association, who advocates not only for African Americans, but for all underrepresented minorities, is an ongoing hiring watch group to ensure equal opportunity in hiring practices. We salute the association for your efforts for all coaches. With so many of our people involved in atheletics, who will be the voice for future Pacific Islander coaches?

Visit www.navysports.cstv.com for more information on Coach Ken Niumatalolo. Congratulations to an athlete, scholar, and leader!

NPIEN Calls for NCLB Reform

The National Pacific Islander Educator Network (NPIEN) joined with other civil rights organizations in calling for reform of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. A letter, drafted originally by the Forum on Educational Accountability, calls for "multiple forms of assessment” and “multiple measures or indicators of student progress” in legislation currently being drafted to overhaul the controversial “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) federal education law. In the letter, delivered to members of the Senate and House education committees, the groups wrote, “If education is to improve in the United States, schools must be assessed in ways that produce high-quality learning and that create incentives to keep students in school.”

“A number of studies have found that an exclusive emphasis on (primarily multiple-choice) standardized test scores has narrowed the curriculum. An unintended consequence has been to create incentives for schools to boost scores by keeping or pushing low-scoring students out of school. Push-out incentives and the narrowed curriculum are especially severe for special needs students, English language learners, and students without strong family supports.”Among the arguments made for including multiple measures: attention will be given to a comprehensive academic program and a more complete array of learning outcomes; higher-order thinking and performance skills can be assessed; checks and balances will be added to ensure that emphasizing one measure does not come at the expense of other important educational goals; and schools will be encouraged to attend to the progress of students at every point of the achievement spectrum, not just those near a test cut-point labeled “proficient,” the letter concluded.

The full list of organizations that have signed the letter: ACORN, Advancement Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, ASPIRA Association, Civil Rights Project, Council for Exceptional Children, Japanese American Citizens League, Justice Matters, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., National Association for Asian Pacific American Education, National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA), National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents, National Council on Educating Black Children, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, National Indian Education Association, National Indian School Board Association, National Pacific Islander Educator Network (NPIEN), National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA).

Speaking from personal experience, and as one who is still trying to pass the multiple-choice ham radio operator test :), if it were not for multiple measures, I would not have earned any of my college degrees. For the families of many first generation immigrant high school and college students, it is difficult to comprehend the rigor associated with academia. To rely on a single type of measure, then declare that a student is not academically proficient, when they have given their best effort despite numerous obstacles including language, disability, culture, and lack of access, will only doom many to give up on the American educational dream.

Global Warming Affects the Marshall Islands

An 11/25/07 Associated Press article discussed the effects of global warming in Majuro, Marshall Islands. The beach in Laura village, at the tip of the Majuro Atoll, is narrower. Some of the trees are halfway in the ocean. Rising water now washes across the roads, where it never did before. Tuvalu, Kiribati, and other low lying islands have also been affected by global warming, which has caused harsh climate changes. Saufatu Sopoanga, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, at the 58th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2003, said "We live in constant fear of the adverse impacts of climate change. For a coral atoll nation, sea level rise and more severe weather events loom as a growing threat to our entire population. The threat is real and serious, and is of no difference to a slow and insidious form of terrorism against us." Tuvalu faces an immediate and serious threat, and yet four years later, little has been done to curb the emissions from automobiles and factories. Entire civillizations are in danger of losing their island homes. Write to legislators, to bring to their attention this critical issue. Visit www.janeresture.com and www.tuvaluislands.com for additional information.