Pearl City Highlands School, Pearl City HI

Original Research by School Decision on Pearl City Highlands School

Pearl City Highlands School is a regular public elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Pearl City, on the island of Oʻahu. It operates within the Hawaiʻi Department of Education as part of the Pearl City Complex, a network of elementary and secondary schools scattered across this residential community on the north shore of Pearl Harbor. The school draws from a suburban, car-dependent setting where commercial life clusters along Kamehameha Highway and residential neighborhoods spread upslope toward Pearl City Heights and Palisades. There is no traditional walkable downtown; daily errands and shopping are predominantly car-based, and the Skyline rail stations at Pearl Highlands and Waiawa function more as transit nodes than pedestrian gathering places.

The community itself is largely built out, with a low housing vacancy rate and a population that has been declining slightly over recent census cycles. Families make up a meaningful share of households, though the median age skews older and settled. Housing here is expensive. Typical home values sit well above both the national benchmark and the state benchmark, and rents are elevated as well. The price-to-income ratio is steep, and monthly ownership costs run considerably higher than rents, which tells a family considering a move that buying into this attendance zone requires real financial capacity. Renting is comparatively more manageable but still commands a premium. The broader economic context includes a national unemployment rate that has held steady, and the nearby naval installations at Pearl Harbor shape the regional economy even though they fall outside the CDP itself.

Academically, Pearl City Highlands shows strong proficiency results on the Smarter Balanced Assessment in both English language arts and mathematics, with most tested grades recording well over half of students at or above proficiency. Fifth grade is a clear standout, posting the highest proficiency rates in math, English language arts, and science, the last measured by the Hawaii Science Assessment aligned to NGSS. Sixth grade English language arts also comes in strong. The softer spots are fourth grade, where both math and English language arts proficiency dip, and sixth grade math, which is the lowest of the tested grades. These are not weak results in absolute terms, but the dip is visible enough that a parent with a child entering those grades may want to look into how the school supports students at those transition points. Only one year of assessment data is available, so there is no trend to speak of; the school's publicly reported results reflect a single school year, and a parent would be right to ask whether these levels are typical or represent a particular cohort's performance.

The student body is predominantly Asian, with substantial shares of multiracial and Hispanic students and a smaller Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population. A relatively modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch compared with many public schools nationally. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, which limits the picture of how the school serves its special populations. A parent whose child falls into either of those categories should ask the school directly about support services, since the published data does not speak to them.

Several areas the data does not cover include program offerings, staffing ratios, attendance patterns, discipline data, and Title I status. The Hawaiʻi Department of Education district brief returned no parent-relevant policy, curriculum, or facility changes of lasting impact. What the available evidence does convey is a school with solid academic outcomes in a stable, family-oriented Oʻahu community where housing costs are the chief practical barrier and where the surrounding neighborhood, while not walkable, is connected by rail to downtown Honolulu and the ʻEwa plain.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 372%

School 72% · District 53% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 51% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 588%

School 88% · District 45% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 44 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 41% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 368%

School 68% · District 50% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 52% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 583%

School 83% · District 56% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 677%

School 77% · District 54% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Science

Grade 584%

School 84% · District 49% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

This schoolHawaii Department of Education, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income47%Higher-income76%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income67%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income63%Higher-income92%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income69%Higher-income82%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income47%Higher-income82%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income70%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income71%Higher-income96%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income66%12 pp gap