Editorial: Get Hawaii students back to classrooms soon

Nearly 160,250 students are enrolled in Hawaii’s public schools. But the first half of the school year wrapped up with just 12% of elementary schoolers, 5% of middle schoolers and 2% of high school students receiving in-person instruction daily, according to recently released state data.

Following last year’s mid-March pivot to distance learning due to COVID-19 concerns, schools purchased laptops and other devices on a massive scale for live-streamed remote instruction. While some students are faring well, growing evidence suggests that for many others, the nontraditional set-up is contributing to concerning levels of failing grades.

With the third quarter of the school year ending next month, the state Department of Education (DOE) must push harder to safely reopen more in-person instruction to help recoup learning losses.

Distance learning is a necessary option amid the public health threat. But increasingly, it’s painfully clear that most students are more likely to stay on-task and thrive in campus settings alongside peers and teachers, even with strict mask-wearing and physical distancing requirements in place. The clock is ticking for the DOE to better connect with kids at risk of disconnecting or dropping out.

For many students, distance learning has been hampered by at-home interruptions and a sense of isolation — as they, understandably, miss pre-COVID emotional support they received in school, both from teachers and socializing with peers.

In our elementary schools, where kids build academic and social foundations that are critical to success in higher grades, it’s worrisome that as of this year’s second quarter, DOE data found that 21% of students — 1 in 5 — were receiving a failing grade in English language arts. In math, 15% were failing.

At the other end of the K-12 system, the DOE is looking at graduation rates trending in the wrong direction. Some 38% of high school seniors were not on track to graduate based on credits earned or needed. In two complexes — one on Maui, the other on Hawaii island — a stunning tally of at least two-thirds of 12th-graders were falling short.

In the short-term, these vulnerable students can benefit from being grouped with peers receiving daily in-person or a mix of distance learning and on-campus class time. Also, the DOE has set out a needed plan for private tutoring for students who have fallen seriously behind.

Further, it would seem outreach-worthy for the University of Hawaii’s community colleges to help more high school students bridge the path to higher education or job skills.

Even as the school year marches on, schools must be steadfast to accommodate more students on campus. As long as Hawaii’s count of COVID-19 cases holds as manageable in health care facilities, this seems a reasonable aim — particularly since educators are now in the state’s priority lineup of those eligible to get vaccine shots.

Also in the DOE’s data — a set of metrics that keep tabs on how the coronavirus situation has affected learning — is a tracking of students electing to participate in distance learning only. During the first two quarters, that group edged toward 40,000 students.

Transparency in overall school operations will be key in bringing this group back to school grounds. To that end, it’s encouraging that at the state Capitol, the Senate Education Committee this week passed a bill requiring the DOE to name the schools that have COVID-19 cases among students and staff.

Currently, the DOE releases a weekly update that provides only the complex — a grouping of high school and feeder middle and elementary school — in which a case occurs. In the interest of more meaningful public disclosure, which federal guidance allows, the update should identify affected schools.