More than half of Hawai'i's public schools made their goals last school year under the federal No Child Left Behind law, a substantial improvement from the year before and the latest in a string of positive signs for the state Department of Education.
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| Palolo Elementary School teacher Wilna Au gives guidance to fifth-grader Kelly Ngo during a reading class.
Photos by Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
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Schools are expected to make annual progress toward having every student proficient in core subjects by 2014. Last school year, 52 percent of the state's 280 schools made their targets, up from just more than 39 percent the year before.
The announcement yesterday, at a state Board of Education meeting on Lana'i, was gratifying to educators who still worry that Hawai'i schools will have serious trouble keeping up with the law as expectations get higher over the next several years.
"We're doing better," state schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto said. "We agree that it's not good enough, but let's honor the work that has gotten us here."
While not exactly overjoyed, given the challenges ahead, educators viewed the overall improvement as another step in the right direction for a department that has been publicly battered for years of poor performance.
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| Palolo third-graders Shannon John, left, and Keyzah Robert work on a poster project in teacher Naomi Kamauoha's class. Although many Hawai'i schools have made strides in meeting No Child goals, Palolo has struggled and fell just short of its targets this year. |
More than half — 55 percent — of the state's 27 charter schools made their targets last school year, an increase from the year before.
All schools in East Honolulu's Kaiser complex made their goals, the first for an entire complex. Kaiser High had apparently slipped the year before because one 10th-grade girl missed the math test, dropping the school below the 95 percent participation rate required under the law.
Even more encouraging for the DOE, 20 schools statewide moved out of the threat of sanctions under the law after making their targets for two straight years.
| A series of successes
Last spring, public school students in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10 took the Hawai'i State Assessment to determine how well they were meeting the state's academic standards. The results were released in three increments, and all showed improvement for a state system long criticized as under-performing. Here is a Summary of the results:
Adequate Yearly Progress: Results released yesterday show that 145 out of 280 schools, or 52 percent, made their goals under the federal No Child Left Behind law, or achieved "adequate yearly progress." That compares with 109 out of 277, or 39 percent, last year. (This year's number could change, as 24 schools have appealed their status and are awaiting resolution.) School-by-school results: These scores, released Sept. 2, show how individual schools fared. Results showed academic gains — some of them significant — among some of the campuses facing the toughest sanctions. Results also showed that charter-school students did as well as or better than students at traditional public schools. But there was disappointment at some schools where scores either fell or improved only slightly.
Statewide averages: These scores, released Aug. 19, showed that Hawai'i public-school students made important gains in math and reading last school year, reversing poor test scores from the year before. Students who took the tests scored higher than students the year before in both subjects. Specifically, students in third, fifth and 10th grades made substantial progress in reading, while eighth-graders jumped in math.
• Of those, 28 schools, or 10 percent of the state's public schools, have failed to meet standards for six consecutive years. They have until March to demonstrate significant progress. Otherwise, the state could begin implementing staffing and governance changes.
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At Konawaena Elementary School on the Big Island, principal Claire Yoshida credits a commitment to a reform-based curriculum that emphasizes reading for lifting the school out of trouble. Under "Success for All," her students have 90 minutes of uninterrupted reading each day.
"I think the strength is in our teaching," Yoshida said. "People have to be committed to doing the program."
At La'ie Elementary School, the school's staff and parents worked on a three-year strategic plan to get out from under No Child Left Behind penalties that also included "Success for All."
"Our entire school community committed themselves to raise the standards of achievement in all aspects of learning in our school," said Deborah Voorhies, the La'ie principal, who is planning a community celebration to mark the occasion.
Next session, state lawmakers may discuss whether the DOE should offer some type of uniform curriculum. Although it might be difficult and costly to convert all schools to a single curriculum, lawmakers and others say, schools having problems could be asked to choose from one of several models, as many schools already do.
Test scores released in August showed that students statewide did better in math and reading last school year than the year before. But DOE officials were cautious about extending that progress to No Child Left Behind, which requires the state to calculate how students at each school are doing and to break the scores down by race, ethnicity, income and other categories.
Educators have complained that the law is unfair because it places too much emphasis on test scores to measure progress and taints schools even if only a portion of students, such as low-income or special-education students, are struggling. But many also acknowledge that the law is starting to show results in Hawai'i after three years, with more schools meeting their targets and increased attention on schools that have chronically failed to perform.
Schools that do not meet their goals for two straight years must offer students the option to transfer to another school and, after three years, free tutoring. Schools that fail to meet their goals for several years face restructuring or a possible state takeover.
The DOE reported yesterday that the number of schools that missed their targets for a second consecutive year and now face consequences under the law is at 76, a number that is expected to grow in the future and could prove costly, because the department has to divert federal money to pay for student transfers and tutoring.
| Other Highlights
• 60 schools, or 21 percent of the state's public schools, have failed to meet the state's standards for at least four consecutive years and are subject to some level of state intervention.
• Of those, 28 schools, or 10 percent of the state's public schools, have failed to meet standards for six consecutive years. They have until March to demonstrate significant progress. Otherwise, the state could begin implementing staffing and governance changes.
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The DOE also has agreed to give 28 schools at most risk for severe sanctions until March to show that students are making progress, a concession that not all schools can raise test scores fast enough to meet the law. The department initially had told school officials they would have until December.
The DOE has set the academic bar relatively low in the first few years of No Child Left Behind, with the understanding that expectations would be raised as more students are tested and the 2014 deadline approached. Schools, in tests so far, had to have just 10 percent of students proficient in math and 30 percent proficient in reading.
After students are tested again this spring, however, schools will have to have 28 percent of students proficient in math and 44 percent proficient in reading, so some schools will either have to make dramatic improvements or face penalties under the law.
Laura H. Thielen, a school board member who has been critical of the department, said the law has exposed the high number of poorly performing schools.
"We have far more schools than anyone can bear that are chronically in trouble," she said. "For the first time, we have to face this issue."
At Palolo Elementary School, where an intervention team has helped save the school from immediate restructuring, students have made gains over the past few years but fell just short of their targets this year.
Principal Ruth Silberstein said she was grateful for help from parents, college students and community groups that have reached out to Palolo and have helped boost student scores. But she knows she only has until March to show sufficient progress.
"It has been such a challenge," Silberstein said. "We're working very hard. We can only do so much given the time."
Reach Derrick DePledge at 525-8070 or ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.
