Summary:
Koloa, Hawaii has two public schools serving 597 students: Koloa Elementary School, a PK–5 school with 355 students, and Alaka'i O Kaua'i Charter School, a K–8 charter school with 242 students. Both belong to the Hawaii Department of Education, which is a single statewide district, so any meaningful comparison has to be made school to school. Keep in mind the two schools serve different grade spans, so their "all grades" proficiency numbers cover different student populations.
The two schools stand out for opposite reasons. Koloa Elementary is the steady performer: its state percentile rank has stayed within a 3-point band for three years (55, 52, 55) with 3-star ratings each year, and proficiency rose in two of three subjects in 2025-26 (Math 52 to 56, Science 44 to 48, ELA unchanged at 51). Alaka'i O Kaua'i has the higher ceiling and much more movement: it earned 4-star ratings in 2023-24 and 2024-25 and posted the best single result in the data (73% Science), but in 2025-26 its percentile fell from 77 to 53 and Science dropped from 73 to 41. A year ago Alaka'i led Koloa by about 16 points on the three-subject average; now Koloa leads by about 2, and the two finished nearly tied in state rankings (92nd versus 96th).
Context matters when weighing these results. Koloa serves a much higher share of students from low-income families (57.46% free/reduced lunch versus 23.55%) and has higher chronic absenteeism (25.0% versus 19.0%), yet its math proficiency was higher in both years. Alaka'i has the smaller classes (student-teacher ratio 13.8 versus 15.4). Per-student spending figures ($16,970 versus $8,858) come from 2018-19 and should be treated as historical background only. Averaged across both years, Alaka'i still holds the higher overall proficiency mean, so neither school is clearly better — Koloa offers predictability, Alaka'i offers demonstrated peak performance.
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