Opinion: High Graduation, Low Excellence

Lahainaluna believes in “excellence and equity in education,” but as our proficiency rates reach new lows, and the majority do not pass their AP exams, it’s time we turn this belief into something more. Students are being asked to strive for excellence, but can Lahainaluna provide it?

As I previously reported in March of this year, “From the 2020-2021 to the 2023-2024 school years, Lahainaluna students' proficiency rates in math and reading dropped. Math declined from 14 percent to 5 percent, and reading from 57 percent to 28 percent.”

Curiously, these drops have shown no significant effect on our students' ability to graduate. Between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 school years, our high school completion rates have barely changed. In the 2020-21 school year 95.5 percent of students completed high school, and in the 2023-24 school year 92.9 percent completed high school.

Our proficiency rates have now reached the single digits while year by year there has been little difference in how many students are completing high school.

Graduation rates have shown no difference despite all the evidence that they should. This fact implies that graduates who are not proficient in core subjects have moved on, unprepared, to higher education. Over time, it seems like we have begun to accommodate the low scores each year brings.

Excellence through education cannot be asked for because an environment for growth has not been created.

As Lucia Mejia reported earlier this year, the issue extends to our most advanced students: in all but one subject, the majority failed their AP exam. In 2024 only 33.9 percent of Lahainaluna AP test takers passed.

It’s clear that even though students sign up for more challenging work, most have not been prepared to apply the rigor AP asks for, or the work asked from them does not meet AP standards. Lack of standards in students' education results in them lacking an understanding of the content, making it generally harder for students who want to achieve more.

All this can only result in students being unprepared for their education, not only in high school, but beyond.

Authors Andrea Venezia and Laura Jaeger found this experience to be shared, stating how “far too many students enter college without the basic content knowledge, skills, or habits of mind needed to perform college-level work successfully” (2).

Eric P. Bettinger and Bridget Terry Long further expand this, explaining how while two-thirds of recent graduates enter college every year, many aren’t prepared for the rigor higher education requires, at times resulting in students being expelled.

This is the future for Lahainaluna students if we do not find a solution.

Solutions start here, with standards. Students need to be proficient in core subjects when they enter college.

Based on the numbers, Lahainaluna clearly falls under this description. We can only escape this description by having more rigorous standards for the education we give our students.

Expecting work from students that shows proficiency and understanding is the result of being given work that is thoughtful and based on deep expertise in a subject.

Our current grade inflation, that allows students who lack proficiency in subjects to move onto more advanced thinking, does not promote proficiency.

Venezia and Jager further support this, stating that adequate preparation “should take a systemic, comprehensive approach to provide students with both academic and nonacademic resources and opportunities” (16) such as “integrating academics with comprehensive support, so that students are prepared to be successful in college” (16).

Implementing standards will prove to be difficult. If we create greater standards, it’s not realistic to fail everybody who does not meet proficiency. This only forces us to solve the core issue: Most of our students are failing proficiency in core subjects.

We need to reevaluate how we teach in order to find a solution to a system that has proven flaws.

Lahainaluna believes “that the commitment to continuous improvement is imperative, to enable students to become confident, self-directed lifelong learners.” Despite this, grades are inflated. Leaving most graduates lacking proficiency in core subjects, and a majority of our “advanced” students failing their AP exams.

Is our school committed to improvement, or a failing system?

It’s clear that a “commitment to continuous improvement” should not only relate to our students, but to the education we provide them.