Education officials say they expect Hawai'i students to continue to show steady progress in math and reading when state test scores are released this week. However, they predict more schools may face sanctions because of the ever-increasing expectations of the No Child Left Behind law.

While fewer Hawai'i schools have been meeting the federal goals known as "adequate yearly progress," students have shown steady improvement in math and reading scores since testing began back in 2002.

The recent spike in the number of schools that did not achieve their NCLB goals — only 42 percent of schools achieved AYP last year, down from 65 percent a year before — has been attributed to what school officials call the increasingly unrealistic expectations of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

NCLB requires that schools show increasing proficiency each year until 2014, when 100 percent of students are expected to demonstrate a high level of skill in core subjects.

The state Department of Education will release the 2009 results of the Hawaii State Assessment on Thursday.

At Benjamin Parker Elementary School, principal Wade Araki said he often becomes frustrated that his students continue to show progress in test scores, but the school has not consistently met its AYP goals.

Since testing began in 2002, Parker Elementary has seen its math scores increase from 11 percent proficient to 40 percent. Reading scores have gone from 27 percent proficient to 53 percent.

ALL OR NOTHING

The school has not been able to meet AYP consistently, mainly because the No Child Left Behind law requires that each significant subgroup of students meet the set targets. There are a total of 37 subgroups that students are categorized in — from specific ethnicities, to various income levels, to English-language learners to special-needs students.

Under the "all or nothing" approach of NCLB, if one subgroup falls short, the entire school gets labeled as failing.

"One year we missed it, we missed it by one kid in the socially disadvantaged group," Araki said.

"It is at times frustrating. When you see it on the front page of the paper, the community and kids don't feel good about it. The fact is, they've made great strides," he said.

Overall, the state's public school students have shown improvement in both math and reading.

About 62 percent of public school students are proficient in reading. That compares with 39 percent when testing began in 2002.

Likewise, 43 percent of public school students demonstrated proficiency in math, compared with 19 percent in 2002.

Cara Tanimura, director of the DOE's system accountability office, said she expects Hawai'i's students to continue the trend of gains in scores.

"I think we will see some improvement in the assessment scores. But it may not be enough where the schools would then make AYP," Tanimura said.

BAR STEADILY RAISED

The benchmarks that schools must reach to achieve "adequate yearly progress" are increased every two years. Currently, 58 percent of students need to meet proficiency standards in reading for a school to pass. Likewise, 46 percent of students must rank proficient in math.

In evaluating schools, education officials say that parents should put less emphasis on AYP and more emphasis should be put on whether schools are showing improvement and are not falling behind.

"One of the worst things about the AYP model, or what is referred to as the status model, is that if you miss any one of the 37 cells (subgroups), you will miss AYP," said Glenn Hirata, head of DOE's System Evaluation and Reporting Section.

"The U.S. DOE has acknowledged that not all schools are alike. ... The model is a real broad, shotgun approach. It really doesn't identify which schools are doing a good job and which ones are not," he said.

For example, education officials point to Mililani Middle School, a school in a middle-class suburb that has shown dramatic increases in test scores but is currently stuck in "restructuring," the worst sanction under No Child Left Behind.

Since 2005, Mililani Middle has seen its reading proficiency jump from 50 percent of students to an impressive 82 percent. Math proficiency increased from 29 percent to 57 percent.

"Our disadvantaged students are not making the kind of growth that we need to make," said Valerie Kardash, principal of Mililani Middle School.

Kardash said she sees the test scores as only one measure of the success of her students.

"More important to us is what the whole child looks like. ... The creative thinking, the problem-solving pieces, that's what we think is really important," Kardash said.

"If we're looking at kids just getting knowledge and spitting it back, that's not going to make for a successful child. But if that student can take the knowledge and look at problems in the real world and come up with creative ways to help solve it and address it, that's what we're trying to work for," she said.

Kardash said having 100 percent of students proficient in math and reading is a worthy goal but not necessarily realistic.

"I would feel more confident to say that 100 percent will be successful doing something productive for our society," she said.

Earlier this year, Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto honored 132 of the state's 284 schools for showing consistent improvement in test scores over the past three years.

MISLEADING PICTURE

Kaimuki High School was among the 132 schools given the honor, even though the school is struggling to make it out of "restructuring."

"When people hear you're in restructuring and you didn't make AYP, it sounds pretty bad. ... But people don't realize, we've been making big improvements," said Penelope Tom, Kaimuki High School principal.

Tom said her school struggles to ensure all students are achieving at the same level, especially those students who have transferred from another country and may never have been exposed to English.

"Some students come from foreign countries and have had to make adjustments to the English language, and yet they are required to be proficient and to be able to graduate on time. It's a lot of challenges. But if that's the mandate, we'll be working toward that," she said.

At the high school level, Tom stressed that only 10th graders take the Hawaii State Assessment. So the results are not necessarily representative of what is happening at the entire school, she said.

Tom said the school works closely with its feeder schools, especially Jarrett Middle School, to find out what type of extra help individual students need.

She expects Kaimuki to show more improvement on the upcoming test results.

"We know we're on top of analyzing the data that we've been getting on how our students are doing and providing the interventions and tutorial services needed to get them ready," Tom said.

But ultimately, Tom said, the school's focus is greater than preparing students to take a test.

"Our primary goal is to get them ready for college, for life beyond high school," she said.

Over the past four years, Lana'i High & Elementary — also in restructuring — has seen its reading scores jump from 36 percent proficient to 62 percent. In math, the percentage of students proficient has increased from 9 percent to 34 percent.

"Last year was the first year that we met in reading only. But because it's either all or nothing, we didn't make it overall," said Pierce Meyers, principal at Lana'i.

Meyers said the school's NCLB status overshadows the improvements students have been making.

"The focus needs to remain on making sure every single student is making progress. And the progress will vary. Some will make smaller gains than others. But if the focus is on every single student progressing, then we're in good shape," he said.