HONOLULU-The Hawaiʻi Department of Education (DOE) annually evaluates all public schools statewide through a performance system known as Strive HI, which includes measures of student proficiency, growth, and college and career readiness, and also looks at the performance of students in the high-need subgroups of Special Education students, English learners, and students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

At the Hawaiʻi Board of Education meeting this afternoon, the DOE presented the school year 2018-2019 Strive HI results. Based on the publicly available data, many of the highest performing schools in the state were charter schools:

University Laboratory School had a college-going rate of 92 percent, the highest in the state.

Connections Public Charter School, Kona Pacific Public Charter School, and Kaʻōhao Public Charter School are among the public schools with the third highest 3rd-grade literacy rate statewide, with 96 percent of their 3rd graders reading near, at, or above grade level.

Four charter schools were in the top 10 percent statewide for 8th grade literacy. SEEQS: the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability and Myron B. Thompson Academy had the second highest 8th grade literacy rate with 92 percent of their 8th graders reading near, at, or above grade level, while University Laboratory School had the 4th highest with 91 percent and Innovations Public Charter School had the 6th highest with 88 percent.

The median student growth percentiles for Kona Pacific Public Charter School, which capture the performance of students on the Smarter Balanced Assessment relative to their academic peers, was the highest of all schools statewide in both English language arts and math.

At Kapolei Charter School by Goodwill Hawaiʻi, Connections Public Charter School and Laupāhoehoe Community Public Charter School, 100 percent of 9th graders were promoted to 10th grade for the following year, the highest 9th-grade promotion rate in the state.

Kanuikapono Public Charter School, Myron B. Thompson Academy, Innovations Public Charter School, Hawaiʻi Technology Academy and SEEQS: the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability were among the schools with the top ten highest positive student response rates about the climate at their schools on the Tripod Student Perception Survey.

Overall, about half of the state’s charter schools made gains in student proficiency in math, language arts and science and growth in math and English language arts from school year 2017- 2018 to school year 2018-2019. The State Public Charter School Commission is proud to acknowledge the accomplishments of our charter schools and students and we look forward to their continuing success.

Sione Thompson Executive Director

Hawaiʻi State Public Charter School Commission