The HSA (Hawaii State Assessment) has been administered in the spring of the school year since 2001. The purpose of the test is to measure how close our students come to meeting the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards (HCPS II). Currently it is administered to 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th graders.
There
are 4 proficiency levels: exceeds, meets, approaching and well-below.
If your child is in the 8th or 10th grade, he/she will take the HSA this
spring. If they are in the 9th or 11th grade, their scores have been
distributed to them by their counselor.
Currently the HSA is not used to retain or promote a student, but in the future it will be. The exact year has not been announced. If you have young children, chances are they will need to meet the standards measured by the (HSA), Hawaii State Assessment.
The
content areas in which the HSA is administered is in Language Arts
(reading and writing) and in Math. As the state develops and perfects
the
test, Science and Social Studies content areas will be tested too. The
state set benchmarks at 30% for Language Arts and 10% for Mathematics.
This
is the percentage of students at our school who must meet the standards
for
ours to be a school in good standing. Currently our language arts scores
are at 36% students meet standards and 18% of our students meet the math
standards. These may seem like ridiculously low scores, but Kapa'a High
School is a little above the state norm.
To complicate matters a bit, every state in the nation must comply with the NCLB law (No Child Left Behind), a federal mandate. One of the requirements of this law is that every school must make AYP (adequate yearly progress). By the end of the 2004-05 SY , our Language Arts scores must be at 44% (students who meet standards), and math must be at 28% (students who meet standards).
Probably the most controversial part of the law is that it requires that by 2014 every child (100%) must meet or exceed the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards. This seems an unattainable and unrealistic goal to many, and perhaps it is. Nevertheless, one thing is evident: since the state and federal government have demaded accountability from educators, students scores on the HSA have gone up.
