Summary:
ZIP code 96741 has just one public school, Kalaheo Elementary School, a PK–5 elementary campus with 371 students in Kalaheo, HI, serving a single statewide district, the Hawaii Department of Education. Because it is the only school in the ZIP, there are no local peers to compare it against, and families with middle- or high-school-aged children would need to look outside 96741; the useful comparison here is the school against itself over time.
Kalaheo Elementary School remains an above-average school in state rankings, though it has cooled from a stronger position. In 2023–2024 it ranked 41 out of 207 schools, at the 80th percentile with 4 stars. By 2025–2026 it ranked 72 out of 203, at the 65th percentile with 3 stars, with the prior year nearly identical at 73 out of 204 (64th percentile, 3 stars) — suggesting the decline has leveled off rather than continued. Proficiency results are mixed: Science was the bright spot at 61% proficient in 2025–2026, up 5 points from 56% the year before, while English Language Arts slipped from 56% to 52% (−4 points) and Mathematics fell from 60% to 54% (−6 points). Both Smarter Balanced subjects are still above 50%, but math lost its place as the strongest area. Note that Science uses the HSA exam, so it is not directly comparable to the other two subjects.
Two context figures are worth watching. Chronic absenteeism was 25% in 2024–2025, meaning roughly one in four students missed enough school to be classified chronically absent — a meaningful engagement and achievement risk that overlaps with the proficiency declines. The free/reduced-lunch rate was 37.47%, indicating that over a third of students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The student-teacher ratio of 14:1 is generally favorable, and per-student spending was $17,062, though that figure dates to 2018–2019 and cannot explain current outcomes. The district metadata (rank 1 of 1) is not a useful benchmark, since Hawaii operates a single statewide district.
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