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Alex Dennis has already completed an application, along with a $125 fee, to Honolulu’s private Punahou School for her 4-year-old son. But she was still anxious about his chance of getting in for kindergarten next year, so she hired a popular tutoring agency, Takahashi Juku Ltd., to prepare him for admission interviews. 

The first session at Takahashi Juku cost $100, Dennis said, and she plans on taking her son back a few more times. The tutor helped her son prepare for likely steps in Punahou’s interview and assessment process — such as drawing a self-portrait or describing a picture of a car.

Private schools play a prominent role in Hawaii’s educational system, more so than , according to the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics. Wealthy parents who want to ensure their children’s success in admissions have driven a booming business for private school tutoring and preparation companies, with some charging hourly rates of $100 or more.

Last year, of Hawaii students were enrolled in 98 private schools, located primarily in urban Honolulu.

Punahou declined to share how many families apply annually, but said on its website the school typically accepts . 

Some parents say tutoring services only widen the gap between high- and low-income families’ abilities to send their children to private schools, with the most expensive schools charging $30,000 a year in tuition. While many schools offer financial aid, some parents say they’re already worried about the costs of tuition and can’t afford extra tutoring or counseling throughout the admissions process.

It’s unclear if private tutoring significantly boosts students’ chances of acceptance. Admissions officers emphasize that they look at much more than students’ test scores, and there’s only so much tutors may be able to do when it comes to drilling math problems with students or helping them memorize vocabulary words.

“We were like, ‘This is ridiculous, it’s throwing more money on top of this already expensive process,’” Dennis said. “But then it’s your kid and it’s their education and you want the best for them.” 

In The Business Of Admissions

Throughout August and September, Nicole Gomez spent hours every week completing her son’s private school applications. Gomez, who plans to apply her son to five schools in Honolulu and Kailua for kindergarten, said it was stressful to research schools, schedule campus visits and complete the short essays required in the applications.

She also felt pressured to seriously consider private schools after talking to other families and hearing their critiques of the quality of public education in Hawaii.

“I felt like we almost didn’t have a choice,” Gomez said, although the family does plan on considering public schools in their neighborhood as well.

There’s been little research comparing the quality of education at Hawaii’s public versus private schools, said Lois Yamauchi, an education professor at the University of Hawaii Manoa. There’s a false narrative that children can’t have a good learning experience in public schools, and private school parents are eager to justify their decision to spend thousands of dollars on education each year, she said.

Private school admissions can stretch from early fall to the spring, with applicants required to provide report cards, letters of recommendation and interviews with admissions officers and teachers. Some schools, including Iolani and Punahou, also require middle and high school students to take a standardized test specialized for private school admissions. 

Philip Bossert, executive director of the , said his organization doesn’t track which private schools use standardized tests or the total number of students applying for admissions each year. Test scores are only a small portion of what schools consider as they review families’ applications, he added. 

Even still, some families invest in hours of test tutoring, starting sessions as early as elementary school to prepare their kids for sixth grade admissions.

At Accelerations Learning Center, which operates two tutoring centers on Oahu, manager Brandt Izumo serves 100 students per year, up from roughly 70 before the Covid-19 pandemic. Students with the greatest improvements in their test scores spend six months or more at the center, practicing math problems in geometry or algebra and memorizing vocabulary words, Izumo said.

Accelerations Learning Center charges $65 an hour for its standardized test preparation classes. Izumo said 95% of his students receive at least one acceptance letter from schools they’ve applied to.

The proportion of Hawaii students in private schools, while high compared to other states, has held steady since the 1990s. But the number of tutoring centers grew from 20 to over 80 between 2000 and 2020, said Bentley University assistant professor Edward Kim. That number includes centers helping students with academic coursework as well preparation for standardized tests and private school admission.

Many families are spending more to prepare for the admissions process, said Megan Meyer, founder of the Honolulu-based consulting firm Admission Matters. Meyer’s business, which started in late 2021, counsels families on private school options in Hawaii and helps them find a good fit for their children.

Some families feel pressured to prepare their students by enrolling them in more extracurriculars or tutoring, Meyer added, especially when they’re applying to popular schools like Iolani and Punahou. Meyer serves up to 20 students a year and charges roughly $175 an hour for her consulting services.  

Most private schools don’t publicly share their admissions rates. But , which gives preference to Native Hawaiian students and is one of the most sought-after schools in the state, says it can have up to 17 students competing for a single spot each year. 

“Given that so many of our families do want to gain entrance into what are perceived as the more prestigious institutions,” Meyer said, “there is definitely greater emphasis on the competitiveness of the process.” 

High Costs, Uncertain Rewards

But even as the admissions coaching business grows, it’s unclear what impact specialized tutoring has on students’ chances of acceptance. 

Mid-Pacific Institute, a K-12 private school in Manoa, eliminated standardized test results as a requirement for admission during the pandemic. Students still can submit scores, said Director of Enrollment Management Christel McGuigan, but many families choose not to. 

Mid-Pacific knows that wealthier families can turn to preparation courses and private tutoring, McGuigan said, and the school wanted to make its admissions process as fair as possible when it went test-optional in 2020. 

“We want our process to be as equitable and accessible to all families, regardless of financial background,” McGuigan said. 

McGuigan said it’s hard to tell if the change has helped more low-income families. But, she added, it’s important to reduce barriers that could discourage families from applying, especially when the school has other ways to evaluate students’ academic abilities. 

Nationally, that tutoring centers are concentrated in areas with high-income and Asian American families, Kim said. But while private tutoring can widen academic achievement gaps between high- and low-income students, he said, it may play a smaller role in admissions to Hawaii private schools. 

Tutoring centers likely fuel anxiety among parents who know how competitive the admissions process is, Kim said. But even if tutoring centers weren’t an option, he added, wealthier families would still heavily invest in making their children’s applications stand out, such as by enrolling their kids in more extracurricular activities.

At Le Jardin Academy, a private school in Kailua, Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management Jennifer Souza said she often reassures parents that extra tutoring isn’t necessary. The test is only a small part of the admissions criteria, she added, especially when considering how students perform in other activities.

“We do look at it, but it doesn’t weigh super heavily,” Souza said about standardized test scores. The school has around 430 applicants each year and has an acceptance rate of 66%. 

But even if tests are a small part of admissions, families who can afford tutoring seem to have an advantage, said Kuhio Lewis, chief executive officer of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. Lewis said he applied both his children to Kamehameha Schools, but his son was rejected and his daughter was waitlisted. 

At the time, Lewis said, he was working as a single parent and couldn’t afford tutors preparing his kids for private school entrance tests or interviews.

Now that his children have graduated, Lewis said, he doesn’t regret sending them to public school. But, he added, all families should have the same opportunities to prepare their children for private school and succeed in the admissions process. 

“It really caters to people with money,” Lewis said. 

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.