Students in Hawaii’s public schools did better in science this year, but their English and math performance stagnated, according to the Strive HI report presented to the Board of Education on Tuesday evening.

The report also showed that a large performance gap persists between students with “high needs” and their peers without those disadvantages. High-need students are in special education, learning English or economically disadvantaged.

On average, almost twice as many students with no disadvantages reached or exceeded achievement benchmarks in math and English as did high-need pupils. Students with high needs now make up more than half of the population of Hawaii’s public schools.

The Strive HI system examines various measures of school and student performance, including test scores, absenteeism, school climate, graduation rates and achievement gaps. The statewide report showing overall trends was unveiled at a community meeting at Mililani Middle School.

The accountability system no longer ranks schools, which was considered punitive. Instead, an individual report is created for each school, in hopes of giving educators and local communities detailed information so they can take action to improve student learning.

Statewide, math performance stayed flat this year, with 42 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards, the same as last year. English achievement slipped one point over last year, to 50 percent proficient in 2017. Students in grades three through eight and 11 took the Smarter Balanced Assessment in math and English.

One bright spot in English was eleventh-graders, whose proficiency rate improved for the third year in a row, to 57 percent, the highest among the grades tested.

Overall science achievement rose for a third year. The percentage of students meeting science standards climbed to 46 percent in 2017, up from 42 percent last year and 41 percent the previous year. Science and math proficiency rates, however, are lower in high school than elementary school.

Superintendent Christina Kishimoto emphasized the positive in a prepared statement.

“The results are encouraging and show our focus moving in the right direction with college and career readiness measures remaining steady, including some growth in science,” she said. “As we move forward, we will be very specific and purposeful in our approach to address the achievement gap and chronic absenteeism. We will take what we have learned about effective student-centered practices since 2005 and raise our implementation work to another level.”

Chronic absenteeism remained a problem across Hawaii’s public schools. It is defined as the percent of students out of school for more than 15 days. The rate didn’t budge over the last year, staying at 13 percent for elementary students and 19 percent for high schoolers.

Several schools stood out for making big gains in the last three years in English or math. Pauoa Elementary, near Punchbowl, managed to improve substantially in both subjects.

Schools whose math proficiency grew fastest from 2015 to 2017:

>> Pauoa Elementary, up 17 percentage points to 81 percent proficient

>> Kohala High, up 16 points to 47 percent proficient

>> Kapolei Elementary, up 13 points to 56 percent

>> Kealakehe High, up 13 points to 44 percent proficient

>> Haleiwa Elementary, up 11 points to 71 percent proficient

Schools with the most growth in English from 2015 to 2017:

>> Kapaa High, up 17 percentage points to 66 percent proficient

>> Kauai High, up 17 points to 59 percent proficient

>> Kahuku High & Intermediate, up 15 points to 50 percent proficient

>> Kaiser High, up 14 points to 79 percent proficient

>> Pauoa Elementary, up 11 points to 77 percent proficient

The Strive HI system is supposed to give schools flexibility in meeting the needs of their students. Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, urged the board to ensure that campuses seize that opportunity.

“The board and the department must emphasize that schools may reallocate resources to critical needs underscored by today’s results,” he said. “Schools should be informed that they may, for example, reduce their reliance on standardized tests and hire more special education teachers.

“Please ensure that our schools are no longer trapped by test scores, but offered the chance to provide all of Hawaii’s children the well-rounded educational experience they deserve,” he added.

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ON THE NET:

>> The Strive HI report is available at hawaiipublicschools.org.