School numbers show glimmers of progress

There were two pieces of good news in the latest reports on the performance of Hawai'i public schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

First, substantially more schools hit the mark of meeting expectations last year than the year before. Fully 52 percent of schools made their goals last year compared to 39 percent the previous year.

The second piece of good news is that Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and other officials recognized that this is still not good enough. They believe Hawai'i's students deserve better, and they're right.

One interesting phenomenon is that many of the schools showing improvement adopted a specific schoolwide curriculum. There is no "magic bullet" here, but applying this kind of rigor helps boost performance.

And as performance improves, expectations should also gradually and steadily rise.

Progress is good. Now, on to the next level.