Ernest Bowen DeSilva Elementary School

Ernest Bowen DeSilva Elementary School is a public PK–6 school at 278 Ainako Ave in Hilo, Hawai'i, serving 422 students as part of the Hawaii Department of Education, the state's single statewide district.

By the numbers, this is one of the strongest elementary schools in Hawai'i. In 2025–26 it ranked 24th of 203 Hawaii elementary schools — the 88th percentile, earning 4 stars — with 74% proficiency in English Language Arts, 73% in Math, and 62% in Science. The nearby schools it sits closest to tell the story: the median rank percentile among ten nearby campuses is about 38. Kaumana Elementary School (78th) and Haaheo Elementary School (75th) come closest, while Hilo Union Elementary School (56th) and four others sit in the bottom quarter of the state. DeSilva also has the lowest chronic absenteeism in the group at 12.0%, versus 18.0% at Waiakeawaena Elementary School and 28–35% at several neighbors.

The school's real distinction is consistency: across ten years of records it has never fallen below the 87th percentile, peaking at 8th in the state in 2018–19. Recent results for English Language Learner students (97th percentile statewide) and Pacific Islander students (95th percentile) are exceptional, though its low-income and special education students rank lower, around the 64th percentile. Science is the relative soft spot at 62% — Kaumana posts 80%. Notably, DeSilva achieves these results with the highest student-to-teacher ratio in the comparison group (18.3:1); its per-pupil spending figure of $15,582 dates to 2018–19 and is too old to describe current resources. One context point for families: DeSilva's free/reduced-lunch share is 26.1%, far below the neighborhood median of roughly 59%, so its headline proficiency numbers aren't a like-for-like comparison with surrounding schools.