Five years after the goals were spelled out and a deadline of the year 2000 set following a national education summit, a new status report finds that Hawaii has improved significantly in only one of the 21 measures: reducing the number of newborns with health risks.

The state has slipped backward on four of the indicators, three of them having to do with discipline and drug use. And on the rest, conditions are either about the same or cannot be measured.

Although national progress was spotty, Hawaii's performance lags behind those of many states. The progress report found that 18 states have made significant improvements in at least five areas.

The report urged states to redouble their efforts, especially those states where progress is slow.

A spokesman for Hawaii's public school system, however, said meeting the national benchmarks is not the state's top priority.

Rather, the system's energy is focused on the "Content and Performance Standards" specifically adopted for Hawaii's schools and now being implemented, said Greg Knudsen, state Education Department spokesman.

"That's our benchmark for progress," he said. "In the process of doing that, I would think we would be achieving many of the national goals as well ... But they are not something that is the driving force behind Hawaii's schools."

Knudsen said some of the national goals - those calling for children to be more ready to learn when they enter school, for example - are beyond the authority of the school system.

Other goals dovetail, if imprecisely, with state standards or policies, he said.

Goals 2000, for example, calls for more parental participation in the schools, something that Knudsen said automatically comes with the community-based schools that Hawaii is moving toward.

According to the report, Hawaii's only progress came in reducing the number of infants born with more than one health risk. The number fell from 30 percent in 1990, to 26 percent in 1994.

Hawaii also had a high school completion rate of 92 percent, slightly below the 1990 rate but still above the national goal of 90 percent.

Ken Nelson, executive director of the National Education Goals Panel, said it is "fairly common" for states to set their own standards and downplay the national goals.

The states that tend to do it, however, are "the states not doing too well by our indicators.

"It's fine for states to have their own standards," he added. "Our concern, then, is that they might be too low." Nelson said he did not know whether Hawaii's standards were low.

But he noted that in one area - math proficiency among fourth- and eighth-graders - the state has more students performing above average than did the national panel.

Hawaii has improved in one of 21 national education goals, and fallen further behind in four others:

Better: Fewer infants born with health risks.

Worse: Fewer mathematics and science degrees awarded in all three categories (all students, minorities and females); marijuana use is up; drugs are more available on school property and teachers report more student disruptions.

Others: In 16 other categories, statistics are either unavailable or the sample is too small to be reliable.

How Hawaii has done in the past five years on 21 national education goals:

Improved: Fewer infants born with health risks

Worse: Fewer mathematics and science degrees awarded in all three categories (all students, minorities and females)
Marijuana use up*
Drugs more available on school property
Teachers report more student disruptions

Same: In eight areas, Hawaii's performance was about the same:
High school completion rate
Reading achievement in Grade 4
Mathematics achievement in Grade 8
Secondary school teachers with a degree in their main teaching assignment
Alcohol use (5 drinks or more in a row)*
Student victimization
Parental involvement
Influence of parent associations

Others: In the other categories, statistics were unavailable or the sample was too small to be reliable:
Immunizations
Family-child reading and storytelling
Increased preschool participation
Teachers involved in professional development on certain topics
Mathematics achievement overall
Science achievement overall
Adult literacy
Participation in adult education
Postsecondary enrollment

Source: National Education Goals

* Separate statistics for marijuana and alcohol use, though they were part of the same goal.