Trending
Hawaii public school students showed continued progress in mathematics and attendance during the 2025-26 school year, with proficiency levels in math and language arts approaching pre-pandemic levels, according to the state Department of Education’s latest Strive HI results.
Statewide math proficiency reached 42.5%, up from 42.2% last year and 38.5% in 2021-22. It was the fourth consecutive year of improvement and put students within 1 percentage point of the pre-pandemic rate of 43.1%.
Language arts proficiency was 53.2%, down slightly from 53.8% last year but close to the pre-pandemic level of 54.1%. Science proficiency held steady at approximately 44%.
Attendance also continued to recover. The percentage of students regularly attending school increased for the fourth consecutive year to 76.8%, compared with 66.1% in 2021-22.
The department considers students regular attendees when they attend at least 90% of instructional days. Strive HI results show those students have substantially higher proficiency and graduation rates than students who do not attend regularly.
Preliminary results for the Class of 2026 show the on-time graduation rate remained at 87%, up from 85% for the Class of 2022. Postsecondary enrollment moved in the opposite direction, declining to 51% for the Class of 2025 from 53% for the previous class.
"At a time when schools across the nation and around the world continue to face challenges in student achievement, Hawaiʻi's progress toward pre-pandemic proficiency levels is encouraging and reflects the hard work of our students, educators and school communities," Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a news release. "But returning to where we were before the pandemic is not our ultimate goal. We need to build on that progress and accelerate learning so that more of our students are meeting academic expectations and are prepared for success beyond high school."
The department said schools are working to identify students who need additional help earlier and making greater use of student and instructional data to identify problems, target support and determine whether those strategies are working.