Makaha Elementary School

Makaha Elementary School is a PK–6 public school at 84-200 Ala Naauao Pl in Waianae, on Oahu's leeward coast, serving 409 students as part of the single statewide Hawaii Department of Education district — which means any "district rank 1 of 1" label reflects Hawaii's one-district structure, not a judgment about this school.

On its own record, Makaha has spent a decade in the bottom tenth of Hawaii schools, ranking between the 1st and 10th percentile in every reported year and earning a single star only once, in 2022–23. In 2025–26, proficiency was 26% in ELA, 21% in Math and 13% in Science, with chronic absenteeism at 50% and 79.22% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Class sizes (11.3:1) and per-student spending ($18,134 in 2018–19) are already among the most favorable in the area, so the school's challenges look structural rather than a matter of staffing levels or budget. Science is the sharpest weakness: 13% proficiency is the lowest of the nearby schools examined, and a steep slide from 27.12% two years earlier.

Compared with its neighbors, Makaha is not the weakest school nearby — Waianae Elementary School (2.46 miles away) ranks below it and trails in ELA and Math, and Nanaikapono Elementary School and Nanakuli Elementary School sit in the same band. The most instructive comparison is Leihoku Elementary School, 3.28 miles away, which serves a similar high-poverty community yet posts roughly double Makaha's proficiency in every subject. Half of Makaha's students are chronically absent, far above North Shore and Central schools such as Daniel K Inouye Elementary School (8%), Waialua Elementary School (19%) and Haleiwa Elementary School (21%). The improvement from 56% to 50% absenteeism is the most encouraging signal in the data. Also worth watching: whether the Science decline stabilizes, whether the special education subgroup measure recovers toward its 2023–24 level, and whether the 2024–25 ELA uptick holds.