Kulia Academy

Kulia Academy is a small public middle school in the Kalihi area of Honolulu (2340 Omilo Lane, 96819) that serves only grades 6 and 7 and enrolls 98 students — the smallest school in its comparison group. It is part of the Hawaii Department of Education, the state's single statewide district, and for 2025–2026 it ranks #1 of 85 middle schools across Hawaii, at the 99th percentile with 5 stars.

Its outcomes are elite across the board: 84% of students met proficiency in English language arts and 87% in math on the Smarter Balanced assessments, far above the roughly 55% ELA and 40% math averages of the ten nearby middle schools. The closest competitor is Moanalua Middle School, 1.12 miles away and ranked #2 statewide, at 75% ELA and 61% math — a 9-point ELA gap and a striking 26-point math gap. Kulia is also unusual in that math exceeds ELA, the reverse of nearly every neighbor, and its 5.0% chronic absenteeism rate is the lowest in the area, half of Moanalua's 10% and far below the 17–27% common nearby. Students from low-income families and English language learners each rank #1 statewide among comparable groups (99th and 98th percentile).

Kulia is not simply sitting at the top — it is still climbing. It was one of only three schools in the set to improve ELA year over year (80% to 84%), and its 12-point math gain (75% to 87%) was the largest in the group. Two caveats: with 98 students, one student is worth about a percentage point, so year-over-year swings deserve caution, and the school reports no science score because the state science test is given in grade 8, which Kulia does not serve. Notably, it achieves these results with the highest student-to-teacher ratio in the area (28, versus a nearby average of about 13.5) and a mid-range poverty rate, while the two schools physically closest to it, King David Kalakaua Middle School and Governor Sanford B Dole Middle School, rank at the 54th and 28th percentiles.