Poor grades plague
isle school system
The subpar rating comes from a
By Debra Barayuga and Pete Pichaske
national public education report
Star-BulletinIf the Hawaii school system were a student, it might want to hide its latest report card. Hawaii's schools received generally subpar grades in a report released today rating public education in each of the 50 states.
The comprehensive 270-page report, called "Quality Counts '98: The Urban Challenge" and published by Education Week, graded states based on 75 indicators of education quality, and found Hawaii lacking in virtually every area.
Hawaii received a "C" in standards and assessments, a "C-" in quality of teaching and an "F" in school climate, which included such factors as parental involvement, class size and the number of physical conflicts reported.
In addition, Hawaii received a "D-" in adequacy of education funding and a "C-" in allocating the money.
The state received an "A" for distributing resources fairly, but that was because, with only one statewide school district, state resources are by definition distributed fairly.
"Faced with limited economic resources and surging enrollments, Hawaii education officials have struggled over the past year to meet growing school needs," the report stated.
The report noted that only 16 percent of Hawaii's 4th- and 8th-graders scored at or above the proficient level on the 1996 National Assessment of Education Progress in math, both well below the national average.
"Something like this is helpful for us -- to have a measuring stick in how we're doing in comparison with other states," said Stan Seki, deputy superintendent of education. "But in most areas, the department and board are aware of it and doing something to bring about improvement."
The department will be reviewing the criteria used to assign the grades, said Seki, who hadn't seen the entire report.
Hawaii has adopted standards in eight content areas -- including core academic subjects -- but falls short, according to the report.
Hawaii received a C on both the rigorousness of math and English language arts standards. Only seven states have very rigorous standards in English language arts and 16 states have very rigorous standards in math. It's the first time standards have been analyzed state by state.
The report is timely. Today, the Board of Education is poised to approve a list of people nominated to the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards Commission to review the standards adopted four years ago, said Mike Heim, head of the Department of Education's planning and evaluation branch.
The 1,544 content and performance standards specifies what students need to know or be able to do at each grade level.
State law requires such a review every four years. The commission is responsible for reviewing the department and school board's implementation of the standards and to recommend revisions by the end of the year, Heim said.
The department is also revising its statewide testing program and adopting a replacement to the eighth edition of the Stanford Achievement Test currently being used. The department will replace the current tests with two assessments, rather than one.
The Stanford test, given to third, sixth, eighth and 10th graders, was not developed to specifically measure the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards and is only comprised of multiple choice questions. "There's quite a few standards in math and reading that one cannot measure using multiple choice," Heim said.
Both the new norm reference test and new Standards Reference Exam expected to be adopted are more compatible with the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards.
