13 more schools
meet standardsAn appeal makes Radford
Hawaii's only public high school
to reach academic goals
Thirteen public schools that were recently listed as falling short of federal academic goals actually made the grade -- including Radford High School, now the only public high school in the state to merit that distinction.
Not all schools left behind
These public schools have been added to the list of 95 meeting federal academic goals:Ahuimanu Elementary
Hale Kula Elementary
Hookena Elementary
Iliahi Elementary
Kihei Elementary
Koloa Elementary
Liliuokalani Elementary
Makawao Elementary
Radford High
Solomon Elementary
Waialae Elementary
Waialua Elementary
Waikoloa Elementary
"I'm very happy, after all the time we spent working on it," Jean Fukuji, Radford's test coordinator, said yesterday after the revised list was released.
"The only thing that was holding us back was the proficiency level for the special-needs kids," she added. "It's still frustrating that a school can fail because of this."
The Department of Education announced in September that 95 schools had made "adequate yearly progress" under strict new federal criteria, roughly one-third of the 280 public schools statewide. Twenty-five schools appealed their cases and 13 succeeded.
Most appeals revolved around enrollment counts, according to Mike Heim, director of planning and evaluation for the Department of Education. Precise figures are crucial because the law requires 95 percent of enrolled students in various categories to take a standardized test. If just a few students move away before the test date, it can trip up the whole school.
Makawao Elementary on Maui had fallen short by just 1 percentage point in one category: Only 94 percent of its Caucasian children took the test, according to the state's initial calculation. But three children had left the school after the Feb. 28 enrollment count and before the test was given in April, according to Principal Gwen Ueoka, so the school won its appeal.
"This has been a good morale booster for the teachers," she said. "It was very demoralizing for them at first because they were working so hard with these children."
Hawaii has a two-month testing window in the spring because its schools are on many different schedules, Heim said. To prevent similar problems next year, schools will report enrollment the week they begin testing.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, test scores for each school are broken down into five ethnic groups, as well as for students with limited English, the economically disadvantaged and those with disabilities. Every group is expected to reach the same proficiency levels. If any one falls short, the entire school fails.
An escape clause in the law helped Radford, which has a high turnover rate, move onto the list of approved schools. Because of privacy reasons, when a subgroup has fewer than 30 members, its performance data is withheld and does not count in the calculation.
In Radford's case the state's initial figures showed more than 30 special-education students in 10th grade, so when that group fell short academically, the entire school missed the mark. But a careful count showed fewer than 30 in April when the test was given, Fukuji said, so their scores do not count statistically.
Central Middle School in downtown Honolulu serves many immigrants still learning English and tested virtually all of them. But it thought it did not have to give the 10 eighth-graders who speak no English at all an English proficiency test.
"We had been instructed that our non-English-proficient students were exempt," said Penelope Tom, principal at Central, which unsuccessfully appealed its case to the state. "I guess the federal government is taking it to the letter that all students should take the test."
The No Child Left Behind Act calls for every student to become proficient in English and math by the year 2014, and states have set annual targets for progress toward that goal.
