Kapolei Middle School

Kapolei Middle School is a grades 6–8 school serving 727 students in Kapolei, in the fast-growing Ewa/Kapolei region of west Oahu, and it is part of the statewide Hawaii Department of Education. In 2025-26 it ranked 19th of 85 ranked Hawaii middle schools — the 78th percentile, with 4 stars — and it has stayed in the top quartile for five consecutive ranked years (74th–82nd percentile, always 4 stars), up from the 58th and 61st percentiles in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

This year, 57% of students were proficient in English Language Arts, 41% in math and 48% in science. Chronic absenteeism was 21.0% in 2024-25, up from 18.5%, even as the share of students from low-income families fell to 39.6%. Among the schools closest by — Honouliuli Middle School, Ewa Makai Middle School and Ilima Intermediate School — Kapolei posts the highest state percentile and the strongest math results. The higher-ranked schools are farther away: Highlands Intermediate School, Moanalua Middle School, Major Sheldon Wheeler Middle School and Mililani Middle School.

The most instructive comparison sits 10.7 miles away: Major Sheldon Wheeler Middle School has almost the same enrollment (729 vs 727) and low-income share (38.8% vs 39.6%), yet far higher proficiency and 9% chronic absenteeism versus 21%. Class size does not explain the difference — Kapolei's 12.9 students per teacher is smaller than at most higher-ranked schools. The two areas with the most room to grow are attendance and English Language Arts, which slipped from 60% to 57%. Real strengths include special education students (84th percentile) and low-income students (70th percentile), both improving. Note the caveats: per-student spending data is from 2018-19 only, one ranking year is missing, and English-learner rankings have swung sharply from year to year, so those figures are best verified before being treated as a trend.