The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in English language arts. The lowest is 53% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Highlands Intermediate School
Highlands Intermediate School is a regular public school in Pearl City, on the island of Oʻahu, serving seventh and eighth graders as part of the Hawaii Department of Education's Pearl City Complex. It sits in a suburban, largely built-out community along the north shore of Pearl Harbor, where single-family neighborhoods spread upslope from the harbor and daily life runs through car corridors along Kamehameha Highway. The Pearl Highlands Center serves as the main commercial hub, and the Skyline rail line connects the area to downtown Honolulu and the ʻEwa plain via the nearby Pearl Highlands and Waiawa stations. Publicly reported sources describe Pearl City as an older, settled community whose population has been declining gradually, with little new housing development and a tight vacancy rate. The University of Hawaiʻi–Leeward Community College sits adjacent to the CDP with a Pearl City address, and Pearl City High School is the natural next step for students leaving Highlands.
The school is moderately sized for a two-grade intermediate, with roughly equal numbers in each grade. Its student body reflects the diversity of central Oʻahu: the largest group identifies as Asian, followed by a sizable share of students identifying as two or more races, then Hispanic and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. White, Black, and American Indian/Alaska Native students each represent very small shares. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
On state assessments, Highlands shows solid results in English language arts. Roughly seven in ten seventh graders and a similar share of eighth graders reached proficiency on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, a strength that holds steady across both grades. Math proficiency is lower, with a clear drop from seventh to eighth grade. Science, tested only in eighth grade under the Hawaii Science Assessment aligned with NGSS, lands at about the same level as eighth-grade math. Participation was near-universal across all tested subjects and grades, which means these results reflect nearly the entire student body rather than a self-selected subset. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these proficiency levels are improving, holding, or slipping over time. A parent may want to ask the school what supports are in place for eighth-grade math, where proficiency dips relative to seventh grade.
Because Highlands serves only seventh and eighth graders, there is no graduation rate to report and no high school course access data such as AP or dual-credit offerings. Those metrics simply do not apply to this grade band. Civil-rights data on discipline, staffing details, attendance patterns, and program offerings were not available in the provided materials, and we found no neighbor comparison set to position Highlands against similar intermediate schools in the area. The Hawaii Department of Education district brief returned no specific recent policy, curriculum, or budget changes that would affect families here.
The housing market around Highlands is expensive even by Hawaii standards. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit well above the state benchmark and far above the national figure, and rents have risen sharply year over year. The price-to-income ratio is high, and rent absorbs a large share of a typical household's income. This means the community around the school is relatively affluent compared with much of the country, though the free-or-reduced-price-lunch share at the school itself confirms that a meaningful portion of families are working within tighter budgets.
For a family considering Highlands, the school offers a stable two-year intermediate experience in a diverse, established Pearl City neighborhood with strong transit connections and a clear feeder path into Pearl City High School. Its English language arts results are a clear strength. Math and science results are more mixed, and the absence of trend data, staffing information, and program details means a family would need to go directly to the school for a fuller picture of what happens day to day in classrooms and what extracurricular or support programs are available.
See more original research from School Decision →