Historical public education information in Hawaii, 2011-2014

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

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Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Hawaii's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Hawaii's public education page.

The Hawaii public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Hawaii had 182,706 students enrolled in a total of 287 schools in one school district. There were 11,458 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 16 students, which was the same as the national average. There was roughly one administrator for every 315 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Hawaii spent $12,004 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 14th highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 82 percent according to the Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate reported to the United States Department of Education for all students in 2011-2012.

State agencies

See also: Hawaii Department of Education

The Hawaii Department of Education represents the single public school district in the state.

The mission statement of the Hawaii Department of Education reads:

“

We serve our community by developing the academic achievement, character and social-emotional well-being of our students to the fullest potential. We work with partners, families and communities to ensure that all students reach their aspirations, from early learning through college, career and citizenship.

”

The Hawaii State Board of Education has nine members, as well as a student council representative and a military liaison. The Board meets twice a month, unless special meetings are required, to formulate policy and oversee the public school and public library systems.

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how Hawaii compared to three neighboring states in school year 2011-2012 with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Hawaii	287	1	182,706	11,458	1:15.9	1:315	$12,004
California	10,170	1,187	6,287,834	268,689	1:23.4	1:389.4	$9,139
Oregon	1,261	221	568,208	26,791	1:21.2	1:364.8	$9,682
Washington	2,365	316	1,045,453	53,119	1:19.7	1:373.1	$9,483
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12 U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Hawaii as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Hawaii's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	970	0.53%	1.10%
Asian	62,521	34.22%	4.68%
African American	4,387	2.4%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	61,959	33.91%	0.42%
Hispanic	11,758	6.44%	24.37%
White	26,081	14.27%	51.21%
Two or More	15,030	8.23%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the United States

During the 2011-2012 school year a plurality of students in Hawaii attended suburban schools. This was also the case in Washington, but in California and Oregon, students were more likely to attend city schools than suburban schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Hawaii	19.5%	42.7%	25.3%	12.5%
California	43.4%	39.3%	6.1%	11.3%
Oregon	32.6%	23.3%	26.3%	17.8%
Washington	29.1%	41.1%	12.3%	17.5%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). During the 2012-2013 school year Hawaii's students scored lower than the national average in eighth grade math, fourth grade reading and eighth grade reading, but the state's fourth grade math scores were higher. Those scores were also higher than California's and Oregon's, though Washington remained highest of the compared states with 48 percent of math students in fourth grade scoring at or above proficient.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Hawaii	46%	32%	30%	28%
California	33%	28%	27%	29%
Oregon	40%	34%	33%	37%
Washington	48%	42%	40%	42%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Hawaii and surrounding states for 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Hawaii	82%	Second	21.3	27%	1453	64%
California	78%	Fourth	22.1	25%	1505	57%
Oregon	68%	Fifth	21.4	38%	1539	49%
Washington	77%	Fourth	22.9	21%	1537	60%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Hawaii was higher than the national average at 5.1 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 4.7 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Hawaii

Hawaii had the second highest private school attendance in the United States as of 2014. Other school choice options in the state included charter schools, homeschooling, online learning and intra-district, voluntary public school open enrollment.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Hawaii state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Hawaii spent approximately 15.6 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. This was down 6.3 percentage points, a 28.8 percent decrease in the share of the budget from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 21.9 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education. Over 83 percent of Hawaii's education revenue comes from state funding. Federal funding accounts for nearly 14 percent, and local funding accounts for approximately 2.5 percent.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Hawaii	15.6%	$12,004	13.9%	83.57%	2.53%
California	19.9%	$9,139	14.56%	55.06%	30.37%
Oregon	14%	$9,682	14%	46.07%	39.93%
Washington	22.9%	$9,483	11.57%	57.2%	31.23%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Hawaii totaled approximately $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Hawaii and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Hawaii	$347,363	$2,088,870	$63,280	$2,499,513
California	$9,995,705	$37,793,351	$20,848,699	$68,637,755
Oregon	$848,637	$2,792,762	$2,420,619	$6,062,018
Washington	$1,367,629	$6,758,505	$3,690,190	$11,816,324
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Hawaii totaled approximately $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Hawaii and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Hawaii	$2,156,001	$85,476	$17,627	$2,259,104
California	$56,784,812	$6,535,512	$3,579,908	$66,900,232
Oregon	$5,418,357	$461,979	$325,080	$6,205,416
Washington	$9,890,471	$1,467,334	$530,786	$11,888,591
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Hawaii, the average salary decreased by 2.1 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Hawaii	$55,453	$58,777	$54,970	$54,300	-2.1%
California	$65,159	$72,803	$69,672	$69,324	6.4%
Oregon	$57,856	$58,948	$58,302	$58,758	1.6%
Washington	$56,089	$56,578	$53,101	$53,571	-4.5%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012, the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Hawaii ranked first overall, or strongest, which was in the first tier of five.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) was formally incorporated in 1971 to bring more focus on education and teacher issues to the state's agenda.

The mission statement of the Hawaii State Teachers Association reads:

“

The mission of the Hawaii State Teachers Association is to: Support and enhance the professional roles of teachers; Advocate teachers’ interests; Collaborate with all segments of the community to assure quality public education for Hawaii’s youth; and Promote human and civil rights to support and nurture diversity in our multifaceted community.

”

Government sector lobbying

See also: Hawaii government sector lobbying

The Hawaii Board of Education does not have registered lobbyists and has stated that it does not lobby in a way that needs to be disclosed.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Hawaii
• Hawaii
• Education Policy in the U.S.