Posted on: Thursday, September 30, 2004

Education snapshot — Mililani-Mauka Elementary School

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

When a new elementary school opened in Mililani last year, Mililani-Mauka Elementary School lost half its students and all but one of its third-grade teachers.

Despite the changes, the school's third-graders received some of the highest Hawai'i State Assessment math scores in the state — with more than half scoring at proficiency levels and 19 percent exceeding standards.

The scores were a significant jump from last year, when only 44.1 percent of students met or exceeded proficiency.

What made the difference: The teachers made a concerted effort to ensure they were teaching the standards. Saying they received little feedback from the Department of Education on interpreting test results, educators turned to the students to determine where they ran into problems, which often turned out to be with vocabulary. "We were just trying to find out why they were missing the point," said principal Carol Petersen.

How they did it: Teachers linked the standards to their textbooks and gave the students sample tests to identify what kinds of problems were difficult. Students who scored average or higher on previous standardized tests, but were only approaching proficiency on the HSA, were identified because "those were the ones who just need that little bit more," Petersen said.

Other factors: Mililani-Mauka was split in half last year when Mililani-Ike Elementary School opened. Third-graders had classes of 23, compared to classes of 32 for fourth-graders.