The 2025-26 Strive HI results released by Hawaiʻi Department of Education show the state’s public school students are nearing pre-pandemic proficiency levels in language arts and mathematics.
At the same time, regular attendance continued a multi-year improvement and math proficiency increased for the fourth year in a row.
Statewide language arts proficiency was 53.2% compared with 54.1% before the pandemic, while mathematics proficiency reached 42.5% compared with 43.1% pre-pandemic. Regular attendance (https://hawaiipublicschools.org/student-programs/attendance/) increased to 76.8%, continuing a steady recovery from 66.1% in 2021-22.
Hawaiʻi is one of 12 members of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which administers common assessments in language arts and mathematics to measure student critical thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills and their progress toward college and career readiness.
While the results reflect continued recovery from pandemic-related learning disruptions, state education officials told Hawaiʻi Board of Education members that proficiency will need to increase at a faster pace during the next 3 years to reach the board’s 2029 targets of 65% in language arts and 50% in mathematics.
“At a time when schools across the nation and around the world continue to face challenges in student achievement, Hawaiʻi’s progress toward pre-pandemic proficiency levels is encouraging and reflects the hard work of our students, educators and school communities,” said Hawaiʻi Superintendent of Schools Keith Hayashi. “But returning to where we were before the pandemic is not our ultimate goal. We need to build on that progress and accelerate learning so that more of our students are meeting academic expectations and are prepared for success beyond high school.”
Key year-to-year 2025-26 Strive HI results
- Math proficiency continued to improve, increasing to 42.5%, up from 42.2% last year and 38.5% in 2021-22.
- Language arts proficiency was 53.2% compared with 53.8% last year.
- Science remained steady at approximately 44%.
- Regular attendance improved, reaching 76.8%, up from 66.1% in 2021-22.
- On-time graduation remained at 87% based on preliminary class of 2026 results, up from 85% for the class of 2022.
- Post-secondary enrollment was 51% for class of 2025, down from 53% for the prior class.
The latest Strive HI data also reinforce the connection between attendance and student success: students who attend at least 90% of instructional days demonstrate substantially higher proficiency and graduation rates than students who do not attend regularly.
Strive HI was launched during the 2012-13 school year as the state’s locally designed school improvement and accountability system that offered flexibility from the former federal No Child Left Behind law.
It includes multiple measures of school performance including:
- Proficiency in science, math and language arts/literacy.
- Attendance.
- Academic growth.
- Graduation rates.
All reflect key performance indicators under the 2023-2029 Hawaiʻi Board of Education Strategic Plan.
Statewide and school reports, as well as performance by select student characteristics, are
available online.
