A first look at how Hawaii’s public school students are faring academically during the pandemic shows roughly 1 in 10 secondary students received a failing grade in English or math during the first quarter.

But about 25% of high school students and 6% of middle school students had no grades recorded at all in English and math.

The figures were contained in a set of metrics compiled at the request of the Board of Education members, who are trying to keep tabs on how the coronavirus situation has affected learning. The dashboard was recently posted online after being sent to the board last week.

The number of students who were not graded in the first quarter varies widely across the state as well as among grade levels. The dashboard does not indicate why certain students received no grades.

But administrators said it likely includes students who opted for full remote-learning programs rather than working with their regular teachers, since online courses generally are graded upon completion and not midway through the semester. Altogether, 26% of students statewide chose full remote learning.

In addition, some teachers are not issuing grades for the first quarter since the school year started four weeks late, cutting into time available to cover curriculum. The start date for public schools was pushed back to allow for teacher training and preparation for changes due to COVID-19.

“The one thing that I think is clearly evident is that there is no consistency across the state, and probably within complexes, because how you grade is really up to the school and the teachers,” said Catherine Payne, who chairs the Board of Education and was examining the data this week. “Schools are doing different things.”

Under board policy, schools do not have to provide quarter grades, just semester and year-end marks. Students who receive an F in the first quarter have the chance to pass the course by the end of the semester or school year.

The online dashboard shows that 11% of high school students statewide had failing marks in English and 12% in math in the first quarter. Among middle schoolers, 9% failed at least one of those core courses.

Elementary school students do not receive letter grades. About 10% of them were rated “well below” proficiency in English and 17% in math during Quarter 1. Elementary schools had the largest percentage of no grades recorded in those core subjects, at 31% statewide.

A Sept. 24 memo from the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Design noted that “if there is insufficient student work available, the teacher may use the NA (not applicable at this time) mark, and explain the reason in the teacher’s comments.”

Principal Derek Minakami of Kaneohe Elementary told families his school had decided not to issue any grades for the first quarter’s report card for three reasons.

“Core instruction started four weeks later than normal, giving students half the amount of time to show proficiency on the standards for the quarter,” he wrote to families in a newsletter. “Many families faced (and continue to face) technology issues, unreliable connections and obstacles to receiving instruction.”

The third reason, he said, was that “we are testing different ways of authentically and accurately assessing what students know and are able to do in an online format.”

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser asked the Department of Education for statewide figures on how many students were failing core subjects in the first quarter of 2019 to put this year’s pandemic report card in better perspective.

The data shows that far more middle and high school students got F’s in the first quarter of this year than last. The comparative figures provided by the DOE excluded students who didn’t get graded.

Among students who were graded, about 15% of high schoolers statewide had a failing mark in English and 17% in math during the first quarter of this year. Last fall those figures were about 9% and 11%. The same held true for science and social studies.

Among middle schoolers who were graded, 9% had a failing mark in English and 10% in math in the first quarter of 2020, compared with roughly 4% and 5% for those subjects last fall.

The fraction of elementary students marked “well below” proficiency, however, was slightly lower this year than last fall. About 24% of elementary schoolers were ranked “well below” proficiency in English, compared with 28% in 2019. In math, 14% got that mark, compared with 17% last year.

The metrics posted online show figures statewide as well as broken down by complex area and schools, if users hover their computer mouse above the images and bars on the graphs. A complex area is a group of high schools and their feeder elementary and middle schools.

Pearl City High and Waipahu High are in the same complex area, but their approaches to grading diverged dramatically. About two-thirds of students at Pearl City High received no grades in English and math, while just 1 out of 10 weren’t graded at Waipahu High.

Sixty percent of the students at Pearl City High who did not receive grades this quarter have not yet taken math or English under a new course schedule adopted due to the coronavirus, and will be taking that subject in the spring semester. The rest are on full distance learning.

Waipahu High had 79% of students passing English, 12% failing and 9% not graded in the first quarter. At Pearl City just 25% had passing grades in English, and 6% had failing grades, while 69% were not graded. Math grades followed a similar pattern at each school.

At the middle school level, virtually everyone was graded at Highlands Intermediate and Waipahu Intermediate, with just 1% of students missing grades. For those middle schoolers in the Pearl City-Waipahu complex, 93% passed and 6% had a failing grade in English and math.

Keith Hui, superintendent for that complex area, said the number of students who opted for full distance learning seems to correlate with the number who are missing grades. Just a handful of students opted for full distance learning at Highlands Intermediate, for example.

At the elementary level in the Pearl City-Waipahu complex, 37% of students received no grades in English or math. Roughly 11% received a failing grade in math and 17% in English.

Hui said some educators may be holding off on grades to give students the benefit of the doubt and a chance to catch up.

“Once you put it on a report card, that’s permanent,” Hui said. “So because of what’s happening right now, we want to be sure that we’ve done everything we can before we put a permanent mark on our kids. We care about our kids, and we want to do everything we can to support them. If there are technical issues, we don’t want to penalize the kid.”

The metrics show that overall, attendance is down this year, whether for classes that are online or in person. An estimated 18% of students are at risk of chronic absenteeism statewide, compared with 15% chronically absent in the 2019 school year.

2020 FIRST-QUARTER REPORT CARDS

To see the full set of metrics, go online to 808ne.ws/Qmetrics.

Elementary

English: 17% well below proficiency

Math: 10% well below proficiency

Middle school

English: 8% failing grade

Math: 9% failing grade

High school

English: 11% failing grade

Math: 12% failing grade

Source: Return to Learn Metrics, hawaiipublicschools.org

This story has been updated with details on Pearl City High School grading.