The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lahaina Intermediate School
Lahaina Intermediate School sits on Lahainaluna Road in a town still reshaping itself after the August 2023 wildfire that destroyed much of Lahaina's commercial core and displaced a large share of residents. The school serves grades six through eight as a regular public campus within the Hawaii Department of Education, the single statewide district that governs all of Hawaii's public schools. Recovery and rebuilding in the surrounding community are ongoing, with property clearance, infrastructure restoration, and a slow stream of commercial permits progressing through a heavily regulated process that involves national, state, and local oversight. This context matters for any family considering the school today, because the town itself is mid-reconstruction and the student body has lived through a community-defining disaster.
The enrollment is moderate for a middle school, drawing from a community whose racial and ethnic composition is genuinely mixed. Asian students make up the largest single group, followed by nearly equal shares of Hispanic and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Students identifying as two or more races and white students each form a smaller but meaningful portion. A slim majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a population with real economic need, consistent with a town whose tourism-dependent economy was devastated by the fire and is only beginning to rebuild its commercial base.
On state assessments, the school shows a clear pattern: English language arts results are stronger than math or science, and proficiency in ELA rises meaningfully from sixth grade to eighth grade. By the time students reach eighth grade, close to half demonstrate proficiency in English. Math results are lower across all three grades, though they also tick upward from sixth to eighth. Science, tested only in eighth grade, shows the weakest results of the three subjects. Participation rates are high across the board, which means the proficiency figures reflect nearly the full student body rather than a self-selected subset. Only one year of data is available, so there is no trend to compare against; the school's multi-year trajectory before or after the wildfire cannot be read from what was provided. A parent may want to ask the school directly how the disaster and subsequent disruptions affected instruction and assessment, and what supports are in place for students whose academic progress was interrupted.
Several data points that would help round out the picture are missing. The school did not report its counts or rates for students with individualized education programs or for English learners, so the size of those populations and the services directed at them cannot be characterized here. No staffing, attendance, or course-access information was provided either, so class sizes, teacher credentials, and elective or accelerated offerings are unknown from this data. No locale classification or school environment details were supplied. The district-level brief returned little of lasting impact; no specific policy, curriculum, or program changes from the Hawaii Department of Education were identified that would bear directly on this campus.
Because Lahaina Intermediate is a middle school, it has no graduation rate, no AP or dual-credit coursework, and no high school career pathways. Those metrics simply do not apply to this grade band. Families looking ahead to high school would feed into the nearby Lahainaluna High School campus, which sits on the hillside above town and carries its own long history as one of the oldest schools in Hawaii.
The housing market around Lahaina is among the most expensive in the country. Home values in the zip code remain well above both the state and national benchmarks, even after a notable year-over-year decline. Rents have moved in the opposite direction, rising over the past year, and the estimated monthly cost of owning far exceeds the cost of renting. For families already in the area, the post-fire housing squeeze is a lived reality. For families considering a move, the cost of entry is steep, and the inventory of available housing is constrained by ongoing recovery and reconstruction.
What this school offers is a mid-sized, diverse middle school serving a community in active recovery, with solid and improving English outcomes but weaker math and science performance. The absence of multi-year data, special-population counts, and program detail limits how fully anyone can assess it from the outside. The most useful next step for an interested parent would be to visit the campus and ask about academic supports, the social and emotional resources available to students affected by the wildfire, and how the school is working to lift math and science outcomes.
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