High schools miss
goals due to
low participationNo isle high school met
federal academic objectives
this year
None of Hawaii's public high schools met federal criteria for adequate academic progress this year, in most cases because not enough students took the test on which it is based.
At least 95 percent of all students at each school must take the Hawaii State Assessment in reading and math, and that is just one of 37 targets a school must meet to succeed under federal "No Child Left Behind" guidelines.
High school students tend to be less diligent about attending school than their younger counterparts, principals say.
"In the majority of the high schools, the primary component they were not able to meet was the participation rate," said Katherine Kawaguchi, assistant superintendent of schools. "We've got to make sure all kids are in school on the day of the test."
At Aiea High School, for example, 89 percent of students took the test. Principal Michael Tokioka said the school gave absent students another chance to take the test, but the number still fell short.
"We try to get the students that have missed it to take it at another time, but it's really hard because some of these students are chronically absent," he said. "This is something we are going to have to work toward achieving."
This is the first year that students with different backgrounds were broken down statistically, and each subgroup also had to have 95 percent of its students participating. The groups include five ethnic categories, as well as students with limited English, the economically disadvantaged and the disabled.
So Kaiser High School, for example, tested 95 percent of its students and met all its academic requirements this year. But because just 93 percent of its white students took the test, the entire school failed to make "adequate progress." It did not have enough disabled, limited-English-proficient or economically disadvantaged students for those categories to count statistically.
Waialua High and Intermediate met the overall participation target, but not enough of its disabled students were tested and those who did fell well short of the targets. The new federal requirements demand that disabled students, or those in special education, meet the same proficiency goals, as well as students learning English as a second language.
"This includes the kids who just arrived here," Kawaguchi said. "The expectations are very high. That's not to say we don't want to achieve it. We have to. The question is how can we make sure we can move all kids at the same time at the same rate. The reality is, you have to acknowledge where they are and move them from there."
She said accommodations may be made for the most severely handicapped students, "but for the most part, the law is very clear that the expectations are for all kids."
"Students in special education are expected to read at the same level as their peers," Kawaguchi said.
Hawaii students are being measured by their performance on the Hawaii State Assessment taken in the spring. This year's benchmarks were 30 percent proficient in reading and 10 percent proficient in math.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014, and states have set annual targets for progress toward that goal.
The state Department of Education released the annual progress report Thursday which showed 180, or 64 percent, of the state's 280 public schools did not make adequate progress.
