Hawaiian Avenue Elementary

Hawaiian Avenue Elementary is a K-5 public school serving 455 students in Wilmington, California, as part of the Los Angeles Unified school district.

Academically, the school faces significant challenges, ranking in the bottom 20% of California elementary schools with proficiency rates in English and math around 25%, which is notably lower than both the district and state averages. When compared to nearby schools, the performance gap is clear; for example, Taper Avenue Elementary shows proficiency rates over 60%, while Gulf Avenue Elementary and Broad Avenue Elementary also perform better. An interesting point is that Scholarship Prep - South Bay, a charter school, has a similar student population but only marginally better academic results.

Despite the academic struggles, the school has made a remarkable turnaround in student attendance, reducing chronic absenteeism from over 50% to 18.7%, which is now better than the district average and nearby schools like Normont Elementary. It also receives more funding per student than most neighboring schools. The data suggests the school has successfully addressed a major barrier to learning and now faces the challenge of translating better attendance into academic improvement, potentially by learning from higher-performing schools in the area.