Gustav H Webling Elementary School, Aiea HI

Original Research by School Decision on Gustav H Webling Elementary School

Gustav H Webling Elementary School sits in Aiea, a suburban community on the southern shore of Oahu between Pearl City and Halawa. Aiea grew from a sugarcane plantation town into a residential suburb of Honolulu after World War II, and its commercial life today centers on Pearlridge Center, Hawaii's largest enclosed shopping mall, which sits along Kamehameha Highway. The town is car-oriented, with Interstate H-1 and Route 99 running parallel through it and cutting the commercial district into separate zones. Residential neighborhoods like Aiea Heights climb the ridgeline above town, and the school itself is embedded among these residential areas rather than sitting on a separated campus.

Webling is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, part of the Hawaii Department of Education, the statewide district that operates all of Hawaii's public schools. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, and the student body reflects the diverse racial and ethnic mix typical of the area. Students identifying as two or more races form the largest single group, with Asian, White, and Hispanic students each representing substantial portions, followed by Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students and a smaller Black population. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a moderate level for the region. Data on English learners and special education enrollment was not available, so a parent wanting that information would need to ask the school directly.

On state assessments, Webling shows solid results in English language arts and science, with math a touch softer. In ELA, proficiency rates across the tested grades are generally strong, with the upper elementary grades performing particularly well. Science proficiency in fifth grade is also strong. Math proficiency hovers in the mid-range across grades three through six, with the third grade posting the highest rate and fifth grade the lowest. Participation rates are near universal, which speaks to consistent testing engagement. Only one year of assessment data was available, so there is no trend to report; a parent interested in whether results are improving or declining over time would want to look into that with the school.

No program offerings, course access, staffing, discipline, or attendance data was provided, so those aspects of the school environment cannot be characterized here. Title I status was also not reported. Similarly, no comparison data placing Webling against neighboring schools was available, so there is no way to position it within its local set.

The housing market in Webling's zip code is expensive by national standards, though roughly in line with Hawaii's statewide baseline. Home values and rents both sit well above mainland figures. The estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home here is substantially higher than typical rent, which means renting may be the more accessible option for many families, though rents themselves consume a large share of median household income. This is the reality of the broader Oahu market rather than something specific to this school's attendance zone.

Aiea's civic and cultural life is practical rather than picturesque. Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area in Aiea Heights offers trails and an ancient medicine shrine, and the area has history tied to both the sugar plantation era and World War II. Major employers include Pali Momi Medical Center, Camp H. M. Smith, and the Pearlridge retail complex. The district brief for the Hawaii Department of Education turned up no specific recent policy, curriculum, or funding changes that would be parent-relevant at this time, so there is nothing new to flag on that front.

For a family weighing Webling, the picture is of a community-rooted elementary school with diverse peers, moderate economic needs, and respectable academic results that lean stronger in reading and science than in math. The surrounding area is a convenient Honolulu suburb with major employers and shopping nearby, but housing costs are high and the environment is firmly car-dependent. A parent may want to look further into the school's special education and English learner supports, its before- and after-school programs, and any multi-year academic trend data, since none of that was available in the materials reviewed here.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 53% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 51% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 45% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 41% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 50% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 470%

School 70% · District 52% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 56% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 54% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 49% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 12 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-income29%Higher-income56%27 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income60%Higher-income73%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income48%Higher-income79%31 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income42%Higher-income63%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income47%Higher-income68%21 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income66%33 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income63%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income33%Higher-income60%27 pp gap