Kohala Elementary School

Kohala Elementary School is a PK–5 public school serving 381 students in Kapaau, on the North Kohala coast of Hawaii Island, and it is part of the Hawaii Department of Education, a single statewide district where the "rank 1 of 1, 5-star district" label applies to every public school in Hawaii and says nothing about how Kohala compares. The only nearby school in the data is Waimea Elementary School (474 students, PK–5), about 18 miles away in Kamuela. The two are close demographic and financial twins: 55.91% and 54.01% of students are economically disadvantaged, and student-teacher ratios are 14.6 versus 14.3.

Academically, Kohala is posting its best results in ten years of available history. It ranks 98 of 203 Hawaii elementary schools (52nd percentile, 3 stars) in 2025-2026, up from 142 of 204 the year before, when it was essentially tied with Waimea; Waimea now sits at 120 of 203 (41st percentile). Almost all of that advantage comes from math: 54% of Kohala students met the math standard versus 38% at Waimea, while ELA proficiency is nearly identical (50% vs. 47%) and science, measured on a different state exam, is within a point (46% vs. 45%). Chronic absenteeism also fell from 38.3% (2023-2024) to 26.0% (2024-2025), now 6 points better than Waimea's 32.0% — and that improvement came a year before the test-score jump.

Students from low-income families, who make up most of the school, rank in the 66th percentile statewide — above the school's own 52nd percentile — a sign the instructional approach works especially well for the students the school serves in the greatest numbers. Other groups lag: Special Education students rank at the 5th percentile (148 of 155 schools, 0 stars) in 2025-2026, and English Language Learners are mid-pack at the 40th percentile. Because the math gain is a single-year swing between two schools with near-identical resources, it is worth waiting for a second year of data before treating it as durable.