WAILUKU - Eight out of 32 Maui County public schools met state and federal reading and math benchmarks this year, which is more than the number of schools that initially met the standards last year.
Twenty-four schools did not score high enough in the annual testing of students in elementary grades 3 to 5, intermediate grades 6 to 8 and high school 10th-graders. The schools that fell short face a range of consequences from initial state intervention to the hiring of an outside firm to provide expertise in how to improve student performance.
The eight that met the standards are: Haiku, Kula, Makawao, Paia, Pukalani, Pomaikai, Kaunakakai and Kilohana elementary schools. This was the first year that scores from Pomaikai Elementary School in Kahului were counted. The school opened in 2007.
On Thursday, the 2009 Hawaii State Assessment and Preliminary Adequate Yearly Progress reports were released to the state Board of Education at a meeting in Honolulu.
The adequate yearly progress standard is established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The education reform act requires an annual review of school progress with the goal of achieving100 percent proficiency in reading and math by the year 2014.
A school is subject to No Child Left Behind sanctions if it fails to show "adequate yearly progress" for two consecutive years.
Some schools fell just short of meeting the law's benchmarks. Lokelani Intermediate School and Kamalii and Wailuku elementary schools failed to clear just one area, while Molokai Middle and Maunaloa, Kualapuu, Waihee, Kahului and Kihei elementary schools missed the mark by not meeting standards in two required areas.
In the federal education reform law's rating system, if a school fails to meet the target in any one area, it will not achieve adequate yearly progress. There are up to 37 different measures for progress for schools to meet annually. The areas are defined by ethnicity, higher poverty levels, limited English proficiency, special education needs, retention rates and high school graduation rates.
In Maui County, 17 schools were rated in the lowest category - "restructuring" - meaning they've failed to achieve adequate yearly progress for four or more years. Such schools are subject to the most severe state interventions which includes requiring that the staff work with a private firm to improve student performance.
Seven Maui County schools were placed in the highest possible category of "good standing, unconditional," meaning the school has achieved adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years. No state intervention is required.
Bruce Anderson, the Maui complex area superintendent, said students in his district did well in reading but not so well in math.
"Math is an area we are going to look at closely," he said Thursday.
Anderson's complex includes all the schools that feed into Baldwin, King Kekaulike and Maui high schools.
He said school officials will focus now not only on making the benchmarks, but they will look into recruiting highly qualified teachers to help the existing math teachers.
Anderson said there were some good surprises in the results, where Maui Waena Intermediate made "big jumps in both reading and math."
However, Maui Waena still failed to make adequate yearly progress and remained in restructuring status, according to testing results.
Anderson also applauded the five Upcountry elementary schools, which all met the benchmarks and were given the highest rankings possible.
"That was something," Anderson said. "I don't know if it was unexpected. (But) I do know how hard they work."
Anderson said he will also be looking at the practices of Pomaikai Elementary School, whose first official posted results show it had met both reading and math benchmarks.
The school focuses on arts integration, and Anderson said he would like to see how he can apply the school's teaching methods to other schools that need help.
Lindsay Ball, complex area superintendent for Hana, Lahaina, Lanai and Molokai, said he also would like to focus on math, which is where students in his district also had trouble.
Ball said he would like to look at teaching methods used by the Upcountry elementary schools that met their benchmarks and possibly adopt its teaching strategies.
He said his complex has begun and will continue workshops for teachers on how to help instruct non-English speaking students, which will also help teachers overall with all instruction.
But overall, Ball said he is seeing growth at his schools.
"Schools are seeing gains, especially in the reading," he said.
Ball added that schools with more students have a harder time achieving benchmarks because additional requirements are triggered as the number of students rises.
Ball said some results do not reflect the hard work by teachers and students.
"Like you prepare for the game and you do your best and don't get the results you want," he said.
Both superintendents said they will be going over the results with staff at their complex schools, and they both applauded their teachers, staff and students for their hard work.
Across the state, scores for the Hawaii State Assessment test show that a greater percentage of Hawaii students are testing proficient in reading and math compared to previous test years.
Statewide, the percentage of students testing proficient in reading is 65 percent, up from 60 percent in 2007 and up from 41 percent in 2003.
Math scores rose to 44 percent, compared with 38 percent in 2007 and 20 percent in 2003.
Preliminary adequate yearly progress results for the state show 34 percent of Hawaii's public schools (97 schools) met all their targets, down from 42 percent (119 schools) last year.
Eighty-seven schools, or 31 percent, missed making the benchmarks by only one or two of up to 37 target areas.
In a news release from the state Department of Education, Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said: "Over the past eight years, we have celebrated the steady gains made by students in reading and math. The progress made by our schools is evidence that student achievement is improving. However, fulfilling the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act continues to be an uphill battle for a majority of schools.
"While today's results only serve as one measure of how a school is performing, the need to close the achievement gap in Hawaii's public schools still exists. We will break through the adequate yearly progress 'glass ceiling' by implementing additional interventions tied to results, raising educational standards, demanding accountability and redesigning our school day and instructional delivery system."
At least one Maui school principal said Thursday she was planning to appeal the results, after her school did not meet adequate yearly progress by failing to meet the requirement for test participation.
Lokelani Intermediate School Principal Donna Whitford said she was "heartbroken" but "excited" over her school's scores, which showed the school had met all reading and math standards.
Lokelani's one downfall was participation among the "English language learners" group, in which results showed only 90 percent participation of students taking the math portion of the test. But for the English portion, the scores showed 100 percent participation.
"We can't figure out how that happened," Whitford said.
Even if the appeal isn't successful, she said "our scores have gone up, that's the main thing."
At Kahului Elementary School, adequate yearly progress was missed in two reading areas by only single digits in points, said Principal Fern Markgraf.
"Two cells was it," she said via phone while sick at home, referring to categories used to measure student performance.
But the school did show "good gains" in the English language learner category, which both teachers and students had been working on, she added.
Markgraf said her school made the benchmarks in all of its math criteria.
"You have to look and focus on the positive," she said. "That's really how I and my staff approach things. Yes, it's disappointing you don't clear all the cells . . . It's not something you let get you down."
Markgraf said the school has implemented extended learning opportunities in which students go to school during breaks and get targeted help in reading and math skills.
Haiku Elementary School was one of several schools that met reading and math proficiency levels this year after failing to meet them last year.
"We're happy and pleased it did go up," said Principal Bernice Takahata.
She said she was thankful for teachers who monitored students needing extra help.
Last year, the school missed making adequate yearly progress after failing to meet just one criteria by two points.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
