The percentage of Hawaii students "well below" proficiency in reading and math fell in the 2011-12 school year in all tested grade levels, proof that schools are making gains in helping students who are struggling the most academically, school administrators said.
Newly released Hawaii State Assessment data show 9 percent of students tested well below in reading, down from 11 percent in the 2010-11 school year. In math, 16 percent were well below, down 2 percentage points from the previous year.
Department of Education administrators said the decline in students testing at the well-below level follows a trend of growth in math and reading proficiency and is, in part, thanks to greater attention to data and to ensuring struggling students receive intervention quickly, before falling too far behind.
"We’ve been working really hard at the school level," said Patricia Park, Leilehua-Mililani-Waialua complex area superintendent. "We are addressing the whole child … to get them college- and career-ready. And as the schools are moving toward the growth model, we have many indications that the students are doing well."
Earlier this summer, Hawaii announced big gains in reading and math proficiency in all tested grades.
Statewide, 71 percent of students demonstrated proficiency in reading on the HSA, up from 66 percent the year before. In math, 59 percent of students were proficient, up from 54 percent the year before.
The new figures shed more light on where growth is being made.
They show that every grade level last school year saw declines in the percentage of students testing well below standards in reading and math.
Also, all but one grade level — 10th — saw the percentage of students exceeding reading standards grow in 2012, while all grades saw the percentage of students in the "exceeds" category in math increase.
But the new figures also show there is still work to be done.
Some 28,276 students in regular and public charter schools were below or well below proficiency in reading last school year. That’s down 12 percent, from 32,289 in 2011.
The number of students below benchmarks in math dropped by 4,000 students, to nearly 40,000.
The improvements come amid a big push at Hawaii schools to use data to reveal what happens in the classroom —and how students are identified for extra assistance.
All schools are now required to have "data teams," teachers and other personnel who pore over test scores to determine not only on which subjects, but also with which concepts, particular students are struggling.
Avis Nanbu, principal of Solomon Elementary in Wahiawa, said analyzing data helps teachers figure out whether instructional approaches are working — or if new strategies are needed.
"The teachers were engaged in a lot more strategic discussion of practices," she said.
Her school saw big jumps in student proficiency last school year. Some 77 percent of all students were proficient in reading, up from 62 percent; meanwhile, 64 percent of students were proficient in math, up 20 percentage points from the year before.
Nanbu said those statistics include nearly 200 students (of 440 tested) who were not at her school for the full academic year. Most of the children at Solomon are military dependents.
"It’s quite a challenge for our teachers," Nanbu said.
Solomon Elementary was among 16 regular public schools and three charter schools that saw their percentages of students proficient in reading and math increase by 10 percentage points or more in the 2011-12 school year, DOE figures show.
At Molokai Middle School, the percentage of students proficient in math grew 24 percentage points, to 61 percent last school year from 37 percent in 2011.
Waimea High saw the percentage of students proficient in reading increase by 19 percentage points, to 73 percent.
Red Hill Elementary saw similar growth in reading, with the percentage of students proficient hitting 83 percent, from 64 percent in 2011. The school also saw the percentage of students proficient in math grow by 11 percentage points, to 67 percent.
Red Hill Principal Mona Smoot said teachers really paid attention to data last school year. Weekly progress meetings were held. "Data walls" were created and struggling students identified.
"Everybody knew which children needed the extra help," Smoot said. And that meant that everybody was willing to pitch in, with tutoring before and after school and during lunch, she said.
"It was a lot of work and we still have a lot of work to do," Smoot said. "We look at it as, we’re all in this together."
The Hawaii State Assessment was administered to 96,000 public school students in the 2011-12 school year. Children in grades 3 through 8 and grade 10 took the state exam in testing periods from October to May.
It was the second year the test was administered online, rather than with paper and pencil. Students can take the online test up to three times, and schools can use a child’s highest score.
Results from multiple tests allow schools to gather more information about where students are academically, giving them a chance to target areas where students are falling behind.
At Molokai High, with an enrollment of 330, teachers and staff developed an "adopt-a-student" program to provide interventions to 10th-graders who were below proficiency in math or reading.
Even Principal Stanford Hao adopted a student, whom he tutored before and after school. (His student met proficiency in reading and math, Hao said proudly.)
As part of the program, participating staff members got a folder with data on how the student they were helping had performed so far, along with potential tutoring strategies.
Thanks to the intervention program, and with data teams analyzing test scores, 54 percent of 10th-graders at the school tested proficient in reading in 2012, up 15 percentage points from the year before. In math, 29 percent were proficient, from just 9 percent in 2011.
"It is about being targeted (with help), based on data," Hao said. "If we can get all students to improve, that’s our No. 1 goal."
