Students score low Only 1 percent of public school students exceeded Hawaii's new content standards in statewide reading and math tests, with most falling below or merely "approaching proficiency," according to a testing scale just approved by the Board of Education.
on reading, math tests
Just 1% of students exceed
the state's new content standardsBy Susan Essoyan
sessoyan@starbulletin.comThe Hawaii Content and Performance Standards test was given for the first time last spring to all students in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. Individual scores for students and schools will be released next month.
At its meeting last week, the BOE decided where to draw the line for adequate performance on the tests, and chose to set high standards in hopes of spurring improvement, officials said. The test will be the baseline for measuring compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires steady progress in performance.
"With these proficiency levels, Hawaii has set the academic achievement bar at a challenging height," said schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto. "Any lower standard would be a disservice to our students, and would not be worthy of our capacity to improve."Only 19 percent of students met or exceeded proficiency levels for math, with 56 percent "approaching" proficiency and 25 percent scoring lower. In reading, 39 percent of students achieved or exceeded proficiency, with 50 percent approaching it and 11 percent falling well short.
"They are good standards because we want to raise our students' levels of accomplishment," board member Denise Matsumoto said yesterday.
"I hope people aren't too hard on the students and the schools themselves. No student will be penalized on the basis of their scores. They will get the help they need to meet the standard."
She noted that the content measured by the test was just introduced as a statewide standard in the schools.
"We have only had the new performance standards for a year," she said. "The schools haven't had a chance to apply them all."
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, all students must demonstrate mastery of basic skills in reading and math by the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
Benchmarks will be set to measure progress toward proficiency, and students whose schools consistently fail to meet goals may transfer to better performing schools or receive tutoring. If problems persist, schools may be required to change staff or possibly even lose federal funding.
Measuring progress, of course, depends on where the bar is set, and that varies from state to state. Matsumoto said that Vermont, for example, set high standards and as a result wound up with a lot of schools falling short, while Arkansas did the opposite and wound up with no schools needing corrective action.
"We have to look at Hawaii and not compare ourselves to anywhere else," she said. "The important thing is to realize we need to help our teachers and our students meet these standards. It really points to the great need for professional development for our teachers, which we haven't had funded for several years."
The new test scores differ from the trend on the Stanford Achievement Test, in which Hawaii students tend to do better in math than reading. Board member Shannon Ajifu said that might be because students were required not only to compute math problems, but to explain how they came up with their answers. "The reasoning portion actually got more weight than the computational portion," Ajifu said. The small number of high achievers overall dovetails with Hawaii's disappointing results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Many other states also struggle with that test, and a relatively small percentage of American students meets or exceeds proficiency levels.
"This is the first step in a 12-year process," said Greg Knudsen, spokesman for the Department of Education. "We went with the most challenging level, thinking that the only way to get us to improve to the greatest extent is to set that goal."
State Board of Education
State DOE: No Child Left Behind
U.S. DOE: No Child Left Behind
