Public schools on Kauai are keeping up with the rest of the state, according to Strive HI scores that were released last month. “I am very proud of our schools,” said Bill Arakaki, superintendent of the Kauai Complex Area. “Our
Public schools on Kauai are keeping up with the rest of the state, according to Strive HI scores that were released last month.
“I am very proud of our schools,” said Bill Arakaki, superintendent of the Kauai Complex Area. “Our teachers, administrators and support staff worked very hard in the implementation of our six priority strategies to support student learning and school improvement.”
Educators are taking a serious look the new numbers, but results have to be taken with a grain of salt because Hawaii transitioned to the Smarter Balanced Assessment this year. Any comparisons in achievement and student scores are made using the 2014 Hawaii State Assessment and the 2015 Smarter Balanced Assessment.
Statewide in 2015, 41 percent of students met standards in math, 49 percent of students met standards in reading/English language arts (ELA), and 41 percent of students met standards in science.
Public schools on Kauai had those same achievement percentages in science and in reading/ELA, but in math only 42 percent of students met achievement standards.
“The implementation of good teaching and data teams, Common Core state standards, comprehensive student support, academic review teams, educator effectiveness system, and new teacher induction and mentoring contributed to the success of our students and schools,” Arakaki said.
The Strive HI System was created in 2013 as a way to monitor school success in Hawaii. It rates schools on a five-level system based on what is called the Strive HI Index.
The lowest level of the system is the Superintendent’s Zone, which requires a lot of involvement and intervention from the state Department of Education. The next step up is Priority, then Focus, and Continuous Improvement. Recognition is the top level of the system, where there is little or no need for state intervention.
The Strive HI Index arrives at a score for each school, taking into account achievement measured through statewide assessments, growth indicated through improvement in state scores over time, college and career readiness, and achievement gaps between those students considered high-need and students considered low-need.
Kauai schools
For the past two years, most of the public schools on Kauai have fallen into the Continuous Improvement category of the Strive HI Performance System.
That means they are in the second-highest tier of the system and require a very low level of state intervention.
This year it’s the same story. In fact, all of the Kauai Complex Area schools landed in the continuous improvement category except for three schools.
Kapaa Elementary was categorized in the third tier, Focus, which means it needs a little extra help from the state to improve student achievement, attendance and college and career readiness. This is the third year Kapaa Elementary has been in the Focus group.
Kekaha Elementary fell into the Priority category this year, which isn’t new. This is also the school’s third year in the category, which is the second-lowest category in the system.
“Even though there is much more to schooling than academics, such as developing the whole child, the Strive HI result is an inescapable reflection of our instructional impact on our students,” said Dominic Beralas, principal of Kekaha Elementary. “If anything, Priority status made us more reflective and self-conscious of our instructional processes and practices.”
Beralas said being in Priority status also has challenged administration and staff to have a “growth mindset.”
“We had to attribute our low student achievement and lack of progress not to our students’ demographics but to our ineffectiveness in teaching,” Beralas said. “Our growth mindset meant that we had to believe our students could rise to our higher expectations and perform according to higher standards.”
King Kaumualii Elementary School is the only school that is in the Recognition category, which is at the top of the system. This is the second year the school has performed at that level.
Schools that changed performance levels were Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School and Kauai High School, which both moved up from the Focus level to Continuous Improvement.
Kauai index scores
Index scores can vary within a performance level. Hanalei Elementary School, for instance, has stayed within the Continuous Improvement level for three years. The school’s index score climbed 36 points to 185 in 2015, which is 69 points lower than it was three years ago.
The school with the lowest index score in 2015 is Kapaa Elementary with a score of 102. Just above that is Waimea Canyon Middle School with a score of 108. The highest scoring school on the island in 2015 is King Kaumaulii Elementary with an index score of 302. Following them is Kekaha Elementary with a score of 296.
The top school on the island in ELA/Literacy growth is King Kaumualii Elementary, which has a score of 73 points. The school ranked fourth in the state and bested the state median of 50 points.
Kekaha Elementary was the top school on the island for math growth, with a score of 73 points. That ranks the school seventh in the state.
Kekaha Elementary School had the largest leap in its index score, which jumped from the low 70s in 2013 and 2014, to nearly 300 in 2015.
Beralas said the jump in Strive HI score can be attributed to growth scores in both math and language arts. Growth scores measure how well students do on the Smarter Balanced Assessment compared to their peers statewide.
“To show high growth, students at all levels of proficiency must show positive movement and progress on the Smarter Balanced Assessment compared to their academic peers,” Beralas said.
To achieve such a dynamic improvement in its index score, Beralas said Kekaha Elementary employed a rigorous monthly testing schedule where students were assessed in relation to the standards.
“Their results were analyzed by the teachers, and instruction adjusted for effectiveness,” Beralas said. “This monthly progress monitoring built an intentional focus and incentive in both teachers and students to ensure progress on the standards month by month.”
