Students gain
in state test
Proficiency in reading and math
improves over a year ago, but
standards still are not being met
Scores on the 2004 Hawaii State Assessment show more students at every grade level tested are rated proficient in reading and math this year than last, with the biggest leap shown by fifth-graders.
Still, in the four grades tested, 50 percent or more of the students fell below proficiency in both subjects.
"Although we have a long journey before us, we are heading in the right direction and picking up speed," Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said yesterday in releasing the results. "Our teachers and students are beginning to benefit from standards-based learning."
This is the third year that the Hawaii State Assessment was given. The upswing in scores contrasts sharply with the previous year's trend, when only third-graders showed gains.
Officials at Harcourt Assessment Inc., the national testing company that developed the exam under contract to Hawaii, have described it as a rigorous test with demanding standards. Students have had particular trouble with the math portion.
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The exam, which also includes an abbreviated version of the Stanford Achievement Test, was given in the spring to students in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. The test requires students to write their own answers and explain their reasoning, rather than just fill in multiple-choice questions.
This year, 50 percent of Hawaii's fifth-graders were rated proficient or better in reading, up from just less than 41 percent last year. Third-graders improved to nearly 47 percent proficiency from 42 percent, while eighth-graders moved up to nearly 39 percent, a one-point increase. In 10th grade more than 40 percent scored proficient in reading, up from less than 35 percent.
Math scores remained low but the trend is positive. More than 19 percent of sophomores were ranked proficient in math, up from 15 percent last year. Twenty percent of eighth-graders were proficient, compared with 16 percent last year. For fifth-graders the figures were 23 percent this year, up from 20 percent, and for third-graders, nearly 27 percent, up from 24 percent.
"The trend is up, so that's great, but the pressure needs to continue," said Senate Education Chair Norman Sakamoto (D, Salt Lake-Foster Village).
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On the SAT portion of the test, Hawaii students showed modest improvement over last year but outpaced or matched national averages only in third and fifth grade. The national norm is arrayed so that 23 percent of the population scores below average and 23 percent above average, with another 54 percent in the middle range.
Sophomores earned the worst marks on the SAT, with just 6 percent scoring above average in reading and 19 percent above average in math. By contrast, 34 percent of third-graders and 36 percent of fifth-graders scored above average in math.
Board of Education member Troy Hashimoto, a student at King Kekaulike High School, said part of the problem is the cavalier attitude older students have toward the Hawaii State Assessment, which does not count toward their grades.
"A big problem in high school today is that they don't take the test seriously," he said. "In elementary it's a controlled environment."
Secondary students might also have more trouble with the test because their early schooling was not based on content standards reflected in the test, which were developed only a few years ago, officials said. Superintendent Hamamoto said the department is focusing on redesigning high schools to make instruction more rigorous and relevant to students.
Scores on the Hawaii State Assessment determine whether schools make adequate progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act or face sanctions. School-by-school results will be released in several weeks, after they are verified.
School administrators succeeded in getting more students to take the exam this year, with virtually every student in the lower three grades taking the test and 94 percent of the sophomores doing so, up from about 87 percent of sophomores last year.
The test suffered a black eye earlier this year after flaws were discovered as it was being administered. But it turned out that most errors were in new items that were being field-tested and did not count toward a student's score. All scorable items on the test had been used before, and the results could be compared with previous ones to gauge the effect on students.
"We looked at the data every which way and determined that the flaws that we had did not affect student performance," said Harcourt spokesman Mark Slitt. An outside company verified Harcourt's findings.
