Summary:
ZIP code 96778 covers Pahoa, Hawaii, where four schools serve about 2,450 students across grades PK–12 — two elementary schools (PK–6), one combined high school (7–12), and one K–12 alternative charter — all under the Hawaii Department of Education, with no standalone middle school in the area.
Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science PCS is the clear academic standout across the ZIP code, leading every tested subject in both years: 2025–26 proficiency of 53% in ELA, 30% in math, and 51% in science, up from 48%, 26%, and 41% the year before. It also posts the highest graduation rate at 89% and the lowest chronic absenteeism at 25%. Notably, it achieves this with the highest student-teacher ratio (15.5) and the lowest per-student spending ($9,655, roughly half that of Pahoa High & Intermediate School), while its free/reduced lunch rate of 76.69% is the second highest.
The other three schools face steeper challenges. Pahoa High & Intermediate School is the largest, with 745 students, the highest chronic absenteeism at 53%, the highest per-student spending ($19,147), and a 73% graduation rate; its ELA (27% to 35%) and math (16% to 20%) improved, but science fell sharply from 27% to 14%. Keonepoko Elementary School saw science rise from 25% to 33% and has the lowest free/reduced lunch rate (69.91%) and lowest student-teacher ratio (12.5), though 36% of students are chronically absent. Pahoa Elementary School is the smallest (402 students) and has the highest need: 81.84% free/reduced lunch, 47% chronic absenteeism, the lowest ELA and science results in 2025–26, and a rank percentile of 4, down from 8 three years earlier. Ranked schools here sit in the bottom fifth statewide (15th, 10th, and 4th percentile), and math is a ZIP-code-wide weakness, with proficiency ranging only from 20% to 30%.
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