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Disturbingly low educational skills were revealed among the plethora of data released Monday in the 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book, an annual state-by-state report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
While Hawaii’s on-time high school graduation rates improved slightly — 86% of students in 2022 compared with 85% in 2019 — proficiencies in reading and math are trending in the wrong direction.
Reading nonproficiency among fourth-graders rose to 68%, while math nonproficiency among eighth-graders worsened to 77% in 2024 from 72% in 2019. Takeaway: So more Hawaii teens are graduating — but (unless things improved dramatically in high school) with alarmingly low reading and math skills.