Summary:
Zip code 96749 — the Keaau area of Hawaii's Big Island — is served by exactly one public high school, Keaau High School, a comprehensive grades 9–12 campus with 1,041 students, or roughly 260 per grade. Because there is no other public high school in the area to compare against, the most useful way to judge this school is against its own performance over the past three years.
Keaau serves a high-need community: 71.66% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, about 746 students. Chronic absenteeism stands at 41% — roughly 427 students missing enough school to be flagged. On the positive side, 90% of students graduate, and the student-to-teacher ratio of 14.8:1 (about 70 teachers) is reasonable, suggesting class size is not the main obstacle. The only spending figure available is $17,149 per student, but it dates to 2018–19 — seven years old — so it cannot tell you how well funded the school is today.
Academics are the concern. In 2025–26, 45% of students were proficient in English Language Arts but only 14% in math — a 31-point gap that also appeared the year before. Biology improved from 20% to 26%, though that end-of-course exam covers only students who took the class. The school's state percentile slipped steadily from 43 to 37 to 34, and it holds a consistent 2-star rating. Note that the 5-star rating shown for Hawaii Department of Education reflects Hawaii's single statewide district, not this school. Most importantly, a 90% graduation rate does not mean students are leaving with grade-level math skills.
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