When Hawai'i's public school students return from spring break in two weeks, they'll begin this year's round of rigorous state testing to measure whether schools are making significant progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Some 95,000 students will take the six-day exam during a two-week testing window April 6 to 24.

Education officials stress that the exam, known as the Hawaii State Assessment, is critical because its results are used to determine whether a school will face sanctions under No Child Left Behind. Last year, Hawai'i saw a spike in the number of schools in "restructuring," with 78 currently under the most severe NCLB sanction compared with 48 the year before.

"We're really stressed right now," said Eileen Hirota, principal of Keone'ula Elementary in 'Ewa Beach. The school failed to achieve its NCLB goals last year and faces the first level of sanctions if the school again doesn't reach "adequate yearly progress."

While Keone'ula students generally achieved the set goals in math and reading last year, a small group of economically disadvantaged students did not. That put the school among the nearly 60 percent of public schools statewide that failed to achieve NCLB goals last year.

"This is critical. ... If the results indicate that the disadvantaged group did not make it again, we're in trouble," she said.

Fewer Hawai'i schools are meeting the federal list of expectations — from math and reading proficiency to test participation, retention and graduation rates — with about 42 percent of schools achieving AYP last year. That's down from a year before, when 65 percent of the state's 284 schools met their goals.

'POSITIVE DIRECTION'

But overall, the state's public school students are showing steady improvement in math and reading test scores since the testing began in 2002.

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 to see steady gains from schools this year. But she expects many schools will continue to struggle.

"Our teaching has been getting better. Teachers are understanding the benchmarks and are getting better with standards-based instruction," Tanimura said.

While 164 schools did not make AYP last year, Tanimura pointed out that 132 of them have shown progress in both math and reading over the past three years.

"Although some of these schools did not make AYP, they are still moving their kids in a positive direction," she said.

Hawai'i's public school students were released on a two-week spring break Friday, and test booklets, No. 2 pencils and bubble answer sheets await their return.

In an attempt to keep momentum going into the test, many schools are offering tutoring and reading programs during the two-week break. And for the past several weeks leading up to the break, many teachers have been emphasizing test-taking skills to minimize common errors that can hurt a student's score.

"We don't want to make a big thing about it and make the kids nervous," said Charlotte Unni, principal at Ala Wai Elementary. Ala Wai will be among the schools offering special classes during the break.

While Ala Wai is a national Blue Ribbon School and has consistently excelled under NCLB, Unni said it's difficult to predict how the school will do.

"It's an ongoing challenge for us because of the nature of the student body. It's a very transient community. There's a lot of movement among families," she said.

SCHOOLS STRUGGLING

Last year, education officials said the spike in the number of schools that did not meet their goals reflected the increasingly unrealistic expectations of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

No Child Left Behind requires that schools show increasing proficiency each year until 2014, when 100 percent of students are expected to be proficient in core subjects.

The benchmarks that schools must reach to achieve "adequate yearly progress" were increased last year. Fifty-eight 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.

"All of our schools are going to struggle with these extremely high expectations," Tanimura said.

"I try to emphasize that we keep it in perspective," she said. "It's an important indicator, but it's just one indicator of how our students are doing," she said.

Because benchmarks will not change, Palolo Elementary principal Ruth Silberstein said she hopes the school will have a better chance of reaching AYP this year.

In 2007, Palolo exited "restructuring" after two years of achieving its goals. And then, last year, the school failed to reach the goals, making it vulnerable to sanction again.

"As far as making those targets, we're going to try, but it's challenging. We've had a lot of transition of students coming in from Micronesia and then leaving us. The challenges are great," Silberstein said.

Silberstein said community volunteers and college students will be at the school during the spring break to help with reading and math tutoring.

"We know our students need it," she said.

Alvin Nagasako, principal of Kapolei High School, said teachers there have emphasized standards-based instruction, rather than teaching kids to be good test takers.

"It's always important for us to do well on the test. But what's also important to me is getting kids ready to leave high school. It's our moral obligation," he said.