Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

Hawaii’s school ratings have been in the news lately because of a reports that 60% of the schools failed to meet adequate yearly progress standards. 

You can download the report released July 16,2008 and look up schools in particular neighborhoods.
Download Hawaii School Ratings   The ratings are explained below.

What is AYP?

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is part of the Federal No Child Left Behind Act and makes districts and schools accountable to students, parents and educators. To meet AYP, schools must meet achievement targets in reading and math, as well as graduation, attendance and test participation targets.

In addition to higher standards, (45% in math and 54% in reading in 2004-05), schools had to show 90% attendance for schools without a graduating class, or an 80% graduation rate and a 95% participation rate for students who took the exam.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools are expected to make annual progress toward having every student proficient in core subjects by 2014.

The benchmarks ratchet higher each year, and the goal for schools is to reach the state proficiency targets — or make AYP, adequate yearly progress — on the Hawai‘i State Assessment in reading and math, and meet other goals relating to test participation and promotion or graduation.

This year instead of 10 percent of a school’s students meeting math standards as in 2004, 28 percent had to meet them; and instead of 30 percent of a school’s students meeting reading standards, 44 percent had to meet them if the school was to meet new overall goals.

These levels will remain the same for the next two years before they increase again.

This applies to all students, including subgroups defined by ethnicity, poverty levels, English proficiency or special education needs. If any of the 37 subgroups is deficient, the entire school is labeled as not achieving AYP. AYP results are used to determine a school’s status under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

For schools that do not attain the benchmarks, the law specifies a six-year path to the most far-reaching remedies, which can include replacing the entire teaching staff and eliminating arts classes in favor of a more rigorous academic curriculum.

A school is subject to No Child Left Behind sanctions if it misses AYP for two consecutive years, and the sanctions increase if AYP is missed in subsequent years. Once under these sanctions, a school must achieve AYP for two consecutive years to be removed from status.

The No Child Left Behind status categories:

Good standing, unconditional: Meeting AYP.
Good standing, pending: Missed AYP this year, will have to improve next year to avoid sanctions.
School improvement, Year 1: Missed AYP 2 years; from this level on, students can transfer schools.
School improvement, Year 2: Missed AYP 3 years; from this level on, students can transfer schools or ask for tutoring.
Corrective action: Missed AYP 4 years; staff or curriculum changes must be made.
Planning for restructuring: Missed AYP 5 years; state plans major changes such as replacement of staff or conversion to charter school.
Restructuring: Missed AYP 6 years. The state will begin implementing the planned changes.

How Hawai‘i schools fared

Good standing, unconditional – 80 schools, or 29 percent
Good standing, pending – 65 schools, or 23 percent
School improvement, Year 1 – 14 schools, or 5 percent
School improvement, Year 2 – 65 schools, or 23 percent
Corrective action – 2 schools, or 1 percent
Planning for restructuring – 13 schools, or 5 percent
Restructuring – 40 schools, or 14 percent