Test score data suggests that students in Hawaii’s 37 public charter schools as a group are lagging markedly behind regular public school students statewide in core subjects, and that has led some state lawmakers to demand stronger accountability and standards from charter school officials.

About 12,100 students were enrolled in Hawaii public charter schools in the 2022-23 school year. According to the state Department of Education’s Strive HI data for that year:

>> In English language arts: 47% of charter school students were measured as proficient, compared with 52% of public school students statewide.

>> In math: 31% of charter school students were measured as proficient, compared with 40% of public school students statewide.

>> In science: 37% of charter school students were measured as proficient, compared with 38% of public school students statewide.

Sen. Lynn DeCoite (D-East and Upcountry Maui-­Molokai-Lanai) called the charter schools’ numbers “alarming” during a joint informational briefing Tuesday before the state Senate Education Committee and Senate Ways and Means Committee.

“Of the 37 charter schools statewide, these percentages do not appear to be all that great, but the opposite. They are not meeting the proficiency levels we want in the core subjects that we measure,” DeCoite said. She asked state charter school officials: “Can you explain to me and give me the reasons for this poor performance?”

“From the standpoint of why the poor performance, I don’t have an answer to that,” responded PJ Foehr, interim executive director/deputy director of the state Public Charter School Commission. “We would have to engage the (individual) school and ask them for description of why their performance would be that low. That is part of the renewal process. And certainly (charter school) commissioners are receiving the academic performance of schools at this time, twice a year.”

Individual charter schools varied widely in their performance, according to data presented in the latest annual report of the state Public Charter School Commission.

For instance, in math, on one end of the spectrum were six charter schools showing single-digit percentages of students demonstrating proficiency. On the other end were schools such as Ka‘ohao Public Charter School, with 73% demonstrating proficiency; and Myron B. Thompson Academy, with 71%.

Commission Chair Cathy Ikeda acknowledged that “there are some schools that are struggling … but they also have their own story about what they’re doing well, for their community, for their families, for the students that choose to go there.”

Ikeda said the latest system of evaluation of student academic achievement for a charter school’s contract gives about three-fourths of the weight to standardized test performance and one-fourth to other performance measures that the school and its governing board can determine.

Hawaii’s 37 public charter schools are publicly funded, free for students to attend, and operated and managed by independent governing boards. Each charter school operates under a performance contract with the state Public Charter School Commission. The commission is the sole authorizer of charter schools in the state, and it grants contracts of up to five years. The contract includes three “frameworks”: academic, financial and organizational.

Sen. Herbert M. “Tim” Richards III (D-North Hilo-Waimea-North Kona) said he worries that the five-year contracts give struggling schools too long to try to improve academic outcomes. “For these kids, five years is a long time,” he said. “I’m concerned that we’re going to miss the boat on these kids. … We’re concerned that we’re not going to be preparing these students for functioning in Hawaii.”

Some senators expressed surprise when Foehr said no Hawaii charter school has ever had its contract canceled for not performing well academically. But he said 11 charter schools that needed improvement were put under a memorandum of agreement in 2020, and only five now remain.

Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D-Mililani-Wahiawa-­Whitmore Village), chair of the Senate Ways and Means committee, said the commission likely needs to strengthen training for the schools’ governing boards so that they can support the schools better and hold them accountable.

Some senators also expressed surprise that the state Public Charter School Commission has lacked a permanent executive director since 2020.

A new permanent executive director is expected to be announced Jan. 25, Ikeda said.

The last was Sione Thompson, who served as executive director from September 2016 through February 2020. He was succeeded by Yvonne Lau, who shifted last year to a post with the University of Hawaii Board of Regents. Lau was succeeded by Foehr.

Last year the Hawaii State Ethics Commission reached a settlement agreement with Thompson to resolve a charge alleging that Thompson, while a member of the board of directors of three organizations, took state action affecting these organizations in violation of the state Ethics Code. The charge alleged that Thompson failed to report his interests in these organizations on annual financial disclosure statements.