Student test scores show progress

Hawaii public school students made slight gains in English language arts and math on the Smarter Balanced Assessment this year, according to results released Monday night, but several Board of Education members called the overall achievement levels concerning.

Some 90,700 Hawaii students took the more rigorous Common Core-aligned test this spring, marking the second year the Department of Education administered the exam that replaced the Hawaii State Assessment. The test satisfies federal requirements that students be tested annually in reading and math in grades 3 through 8, and once in high school.

Overall, 51 percent of students met or exceeded the achievement standards in English language arts. That’s up from 48 percent of students the previous year. Forty-two percent of students, meanwhile, met or exceeded the achievement benchmarks in math, compared with 41 percent of students the year prior.

Within the seven individual grades tested, all grade levels saw improvements in the number of students testing proficient in language arts. On the math portion of the test, all but two grade levels — seventh and eighth — saw increases or maintained proficiency levels.

“It’s not anything dramatic, but solid gains nonetheless, and the arrows are pointed in the right direction,” Deputy Superintendent Stephen Schatz said at a Tuesday Board of Education meeting in Kailua where the results were announced.

Results at the school level included such bright spots as 91 percent proficiency in language arts at Kaelepulu Elementary in Enchanted Lake and 84 percent math proficiency at both Waikiki and Momilani elementary schools. School-level results can be found at hawaiipublicschools.org.

In a prepared statement, Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said “the second year of results show incremental improvements and our second year of data provides a solid foundation for comparisons moving forward. Our schools are invested in the higher standards of this test and we hope to build on our momentum each year to ensure that our students are prepared for college, careers and community life after high school.”

In language arts the state’s fifth- and 11th-graders performed best overall, with 56 percent of students in both grades meeting or exceeding benchmarks. On the opposite end of the scale, 47 percent of seventh-graders tested proficient in language arts. In math the state’s third-graders performed best, with 54 percent meeting or exceeding standards, while just 30 percent of 11th-graders tested proficient in math.

BOE member Bruce Voss called attention to a graph showing that math scores decline as students progress from elementary to middle to high school. He said the trend “raises significant concerns.”

DOE officials couldn’t pinpoint the cause, but suggested it could be because not all schools have implemented the corresponding Common Core curricula and not all math teachers in the department are deemed highly qualified in the subject.

Board members also questioned the stagnant achievement gap between test scores for high-needs students — defined as those who are economically disadvantaged, receiving special education services and English Language Learners — and their peers. The high-needs population has been growing in recent years and now represents 57 percent of public school students.

Among high-needs students who took the Smarter Balanced test earlier this year, 30 percent met or exceeded standards in math, compared with 59 percent proficiency among their non-high-needs peers, representing a 29-point gap. In language arts the achievement gap was 32 points. The gaps have held steady over the last four years.

Brain De Lima, the board’s vice chairman, called the state’s failure to narrow the achievement gap a crisis.

DOE officials said now that they have two years of Smarter Balanced data, they will formally set goals to tackle the issue. Strategies also will be included as part of the state’s implementation plan for the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, the latest update to the nation’s education law.

The Smarter Balanced exam two years ago replaced the Hawaii State Assessment and is designed to emphasize critical and analytical thinking, and problem solving over rote memorization. Students are required to show how they reached their answers, and if they answer correctly, they get a more difficult question.

Seventeen states and the Bureau of Indian Affairs administered the exam in the spring. The tests are seen by some as advantageous because they can provide an “apples-to-apples” comparison of student performance among participating states.

Test scores compiled by the DOE from 10 other states that have so far released results show Hawaii students in grades 3 through 8 performed similarly or better than five other states in math, and better than three other states in language arts.