Ke Kula o Ehunuikaimalino

Ke Kula o Ehunuikaimalino is a PK–12 alternative public school in Kealakekua, on the Kona side of Hawaii Island, serving about 275 students across 14 grade levels as part of the Hawaii Department of Education, the state's single statewide district. Two things shape how to read its numbers: with roughly 20 students per grade, one student can move a class-level percentage by about 5 points, and because there are no other schools within 20 miles, there is no nearby school to compare against. The district ranking and star rating you may see apply to every public school in Hawaii, so they say nothing about this campus specifically.

The clearest academic signal is in reading and writing. ELA proficiency has fallen every year for four years — 29% to 29.68% to 25% to 20%, a drop of about 9 percentage points. Math, by contrast, has been steady at 21% in three of four years (with one 27.1% spike), and it now sits just above ELA. Science is the weakest area, moving from 27.27% (reported as Biology I) to 27% to 17%. Against all of that, the graduation rate is 93.7%, a striking divergence: students are finishing school while most are not demonstrating grade-level proficiency along the way. That rate covers only one year and a small cohort, so treat it as encouraging but statistically fragile.

Chronic absenteeism is the likely driver and is moving the wrong way: 37.3% to 40.0%, meaning about two in five students are chronically absent. Low-income enrollment is high but not deteriorating (free/reduced lunch has drifted from 69.03% to 60.56% to 63.27%). The student–teacher ratio has swung from 13.7 to 16.7 to 14.4 with no clear direction, and per-student spending is only on file for 2018–19 ($16,281), too stale to describe current resources. The bottom line: a small PK–12 alternative campus with a strong graduation outcome sitting on top of weakening proficiency and worsening attendance.