"I felt a sense of optimism about Hawai'i's forward movement, but you have a lot of poverty and a lot of groups of kids that are under-achieving," said Kati Haycock, director of the Washington, D.C.-based national advocacy group Education Trust, after a visit with Hawai'i education and government officials last week.

"Every state has a version of this disease, but I worry that Hawai'i has a more pronounced view of this — that the problems are intractable with some of these kids," she said. "And that's simply not true. Poverty and family difficulties may make it harder, but what we're learning from all over the country is it's by no means impossible."

Haycock questioned whether Hawai'i's public high school graduates are receiving a rigorous enough education to give them adequate skills in core subjects for either jobs or college. She feels Hawai'i needs to toughen its graduation requirements and increase honors and advanced-placement offerings.

"It used to be that the requirements for college were really quite different than for getting a decent job," Haycock said. "But with all the changes in the workplace, that's no longer the case. The core reading, writing and math skills are about the same for both."

A LAGGARD STATE

The survey found that the overall achievement of the state's students falls far below the rest of the nation, with Hawai'i ranking among the lowest four states in seeing children graduate from college in the expected time.

"Out of 100 ninth-graders in Hawai'i," notes the report, "only 65 graduate from high school on time, 34 enter college, 22 return to their second year, and 12 complete higher education on time with a degree."

The 12 percent overall number compares to 29 percent of children in Massachusetts — the top-ranking state — who graduate in a timely way from state schools.

Linda Johnsrud, interim vice president for academic planning and policy for the University of Hawai'i, said while increasing the "college-going rate" has become a priority for the UH system, she points out that "even the best states don't do well" in this respect. She also points out that these numbers do not include students who go to college out of state.

"It's important to put it in that perspective," Johnsrud said. "Nonetheless, Hawai'i has a ways to go."

Pat Hamamoto, state schools superintendent, said such data make the state realize where it needs to improve.

"It always makes my heart sink, because I realize so many times people look at the data in isolation," Hamamoto said. "If you want to use that as a base line, you can, but I look overall at the kinds of things that we do and not just get focused on a number."

However, she said, the data do focus attention "where we definitely need to take a look."

The major stress points in the Hawai'i system come at kindergarten entry; through the middle school years; in ninth grade, the point at which students drop out at the highest rate; and after the first year of college, when many students again drop out, said Kathy Jaycox, interim director of the P-20 Initiative.

"It's too big of a challenge to say that there's one thing (lacking) and if we just did that, it would fix it," Jaycox said.

Said Hamamoto: "In order to make the kind of achievement we're looking for, we all have to work together. From preschool and early education all the way through."

According to Jaycox, having more qualified preschool teachers and more spaces available is one piece of that solution. "But it's only part," she said, "because a lot of kids will still not go to preschool before they come to kindergarten. So we want families to recognize there are a lot of things they can do at home to improve their children's readiness."

INITIATIVES UNDER WAY

There also are DOE initiatives under way in some of the most troubled spots, one of which involves strengthening middle schools. In ninth grade, another critical stress point, some high schools are creating small learning communities, and scores are rising as a result of these pilot projects.

Additionally, a program such as Gear Up, funded by two federal grants, has brought 7,500 low-income students from 32 middle schools in disadvantaged communities into the scholars program in the past five years and pushed them firmly toward college.

"What we know is each group is progressing at a higher rate than their peers statewide," Gear Up Hawai'i director Tammi Chun said. "Ninety-five percent are being promoted on time in comparison to 85 percent of their peers."

Despite such advances, the federal government continues to raise the achievement bar, calling on all of the nation's children to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. In Hawai'i in 2003, according to the report, 22 percent of eighth-graders in the public schools scored as proficient in reading compared with 30 percent nationally. Sixteen percent scored proficient in math compared with 27 percent nationally.

While the P-20 survey and strategic plan explores the issues, it stops short of making recommendations for change. Instead, it sets forth a variety of goals the state hopes to achieve within the next five years and suggests resources to help make those goals a reality.

"The challenge for Hawai'i is to get the numbers on the table, raise some alarm bells about how many Hawai'i kids are lagging behind, and summon the will to do the hard work to get them there," said Haycock, of the Education Trust.

There's much to be done in the state, she said, including collecting better data to show educational disparities between groups of students, tracking student progress from kindergarten through college to see which programs are working, and looking at readiness for college earlier in the high school years to build proper preparation into the curriculum.

Carl Takamura, executive director of the Hawai'i Business Roundtable, which supports the P-20 Initiative, said it has become clear that the state needs to pay more attention to high school and the transition into the workforce.

"While we seem to be making some headway at the elementary level, high school is where a lot of the problems are," Takamura said. "We agree there needs to be stronger curriculum in high school, and that all students should be expected to pass. But while there needs to be high challenge, there also needs to be high support. But it's not something you do overnight."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.