Hawaii Test Standards Compared
Hawaii’s testing standards are among the most rigorous in the nation, research shows.
By national and even international standards, Hawaii’s student performance expectations rank high, even though it would be easier to meet federal benchmarks if they were lowered. The federal law mandates that every child meet or exceed state-set proficiency standards on the state test by 2014.
Hawaii’s test ranks in the top five nationally, according to an analysis done by researchers for Harvard College’s Education Next journal. There are relatively small disparities between the ‘s proficiency levels and national levels, according to a in Education Next. (See the proficiency level data .)
“Despite the incentive to lowball expectations, five states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, and Washington — have set their standards at or close to the world-class level,” the article says.
The , the U.S. education department’s data collection and management center, also compiled mapping state assessment standards against National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards, the only national measure of student performance. (Read some ).
In that report, Hawaii’s standards for rigor rank third in the nation for eighth-grade math, seventh for fourth-grade math and ninth for fourth-grade reading. Its weakest standards are in eighth-grade reading, where it ranks 30th.
The state’s standards are also among the highest in the country when compared with international benchmarks, according to a report by Gary Phillips, vice president and chief scientist at . AIR, based in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. It helped develop the NAEP, and it also helped develop state assessments for Hawaii and Oregon. On a letter-grade scale where B represents world class, Hawaii receives a C+ for its fourth-grade math and reading standards and a B- for its eighth-grade math standards. The full report will be released in September.
Bottom Line: Trends Matter
National and international standards are secondary to the most important issue though, said the Hawaii Department of Education‘s assessment administrator, Kent Hinton — and that is whether students are progressing. The Center for Public Education, an initiative of the , said school districts should determine student progress . Both state and national long-term trends show that student achievement in Hawaii is improving — and not just based on cut scores, which are the minimum scores required to pass the test, but based on their scale scores, too. are a way to make tests comparable, even when the number of questions is different.
Reading scores:
Math scores:
Hawaii Reading 4
Hawaii Reading 8
Hawaii Math 4
Hawaii Math 8
“NAEP will show a one-point or five-point jump, and it’s in the margin of error, but at least it is showing us moving forward,” Hinton said. “We’re one of the few states that continues to move forward, which is the goal. We want to be able to say our students are moving forward, they are learning and they are able to show what they know. People may see that our students are scoring in the lower quadrant, but we are growing. Two years ago, we were the only state that grew in both reading and mathematics.”
Hawaii Catching Up
“There aren’t that many kids proficient on the NAEP, but if you look at NAEP scores over the last several years, Hawaii’s scores have grown faster than the nation as a whole,” said Jon Cohen, senior vice president and director of assessment at AIR. “There’s a lot of good happening in Hawaiian education right now, and it has nothing to do with AIR. You can look at the NAEP and see that Hawaii is making progress and closing in on the rest of the nation. It’s catching up, because it has maintained some very rigorous and challenging performance standards.”
