Just about everybody now agrees it will be impossible to meet the 2014 federal mandate that schools show all of their students are proficient in math and reading.

But a handful of Hawaii schools are getting pretty close to that goal.

Six of the state’s 286 public schools had proficiency levels this year in reading or math that hit 90 percent or more, preliminary state statistics show. That’s up from two schools with scores that high in 2010 and just one school — Kalani High — in 2009.

No schools saw proficiency at those levels in 2008.

Topping the list for scores this year was Haleiwa Elementary, with 99 percent of counted students proficient in math.

"To continously improve, that’s certainly been our goal," said Haleiwa Principal Malaea Wetzel. "We’ve just become more focused on our instruction. It’s really a validation to the commitment of our teachers."

Ninety-one percent of Haleiwa students were proficient in reading.

Meanwhile, the highest proficiency level for reading this year was at Waikiki Elementary, where 95 percent of students met reading standards; 89 percent were proficient in math. Close behind in reading was Momilani Elementary, with 93 percent proficient. The school celebrated a reading proficiency level of 90 percent last year.

The scores come as there is a national call to overhaul the federal No Child Left Behind law, which has rising annual benchmarks for student proficiency and requires that all American students meet reading and math standards by 2014.

Schools that fail to meet goals face sanctions.

The Obama administration recently pledged to waive the 100 percent proficiency mandate for states that agree to meet other student achievement goals and reforms.

Though Hawaii has seen scores rise steadily over the past decade, the state is far from reaching the goal of 100 percent proficiency. Overall, 67 percent of students who were tested this year were proficient in reading and 55 percent were proficient in math.

Students in third through eighth and 10th grades take the annual tests.

Principals at the top-performing schools say their scores illustrate that year-over-year progress — even at campuses with excellent scores — is possible.

Momilani Elementary in Pearl City has long seen some of the highest proficiency levels in the state, while also continuing to make annual gains. This year, math scores at the school, which has about 430 students, rose 5 percentage points to 89 percent.

Principal Doreen Higa said Momilani boosts student achievement by constantly monitoring progress.

"Our children who weren’t meeting standards were provided extra support," Higa said, adding that the campus also did plenty of work to prepare students for the state’s move to online tests, which could be taken up to three times.

Higa also said she’s learned that students do well when they’re happy. To make school more fun, Higa holds annual musicals, which each grade level puts on based on different themes.

"The standard book report just doesn’t cut it anymore," she said.

Schools with the highest scores are almost all small and so don’t struggle with many of the issues larger schools do, such as big groups of students who live in poverty or are learning English as a second language.

Also, proficiency levels for schools don’t include testing results for all students — just those who were at their campus for the entire school year. Under NCLB, students who transfer in don’t count as part of a school’s yearly progress determinations.

At Haleiwa Elementary, for example, about 99 students were tested, but only 74 counted for purposes of school proficiency calculations. The school has an enrollment of about 170 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Haleiwa’s high scores follow a tough patch for the elementary school, which was threatened with closure last school year because of its small size. After an outcry from parents and residents, the Board of Education voted to keep the school open.

"We were under tremendous pressure" when the state was threatening closure, Wetzel said. "To emerge from that and still have our students be successful … that was very exciting. It was a tough time for us, but it also brought us all together."

Mililani Ike Elementary is the largest school among the high scorers, with about 1,000 students. Overall, 90 percent of Mililani Ike students tested proficient in reading and 87 percent were proficient in math. The campus did not meet adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind, however, because special education students scored lower.

(The law requires that each subgroup of students meets annual benchmarks.)

Mililani Ike Principal Steve Nakasato said that to boost achievement, the school will assign more special-needs children this year to general education classrooms, where they will get access to a more rigorous curriculum while still getting extra help.

Kaimuki High dropped below 90 percent proficiency in 2010, and Koko Head Elementary, which made it in 2010, dropped off this year.