The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Math. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Aliiolani Elementary School
Aliiolani Elementary School sits in Honolulu on the southeast coast of Oʻahu, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Hawaii Department of Education. It is a small school by enrollment, with roughly two dozen students per grade in most classrooms. The student body reflects Honolulu's multicultural character. Asian students form the largest group, followed by a sizable share of students identifying as two or more races, then Hispanic students and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. White students represent only a sliver of the population. About half the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives a sense of the economic mix within the building. Data on English learners and special-education enrollment was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those services.
The academic results tell a clear and mostly encouraging story, with one pattern worth understanding. In third and fourth grade, Aliiolani's proficiency rates on the Smarter Balanced Assessment are exceptionally strong. Math proficiency in both grades sits near the top of what most schools achieve, and English language arts in fourth grade is similarly high. Third-grade ELA is solidly above average. These are real strengths, and they suggest the school is doing strong work in the earlier tested grades.
The picture shifts in fifth grade. Math proficiency drops noticeably, ELA falls to roughly half the class testing proficient, and science, measured by the Hawaii Science Assessment aligned to NGSS, comes in lower still. Whether this reflects a particular cohort, a transition challenge as students prepare for middle school, or something about the fifth-grade instructional year is not clear from a single year of data. The state did not provide multi-year trend comparisons for this school, so there is no before-and-after to anchor a judgment. A parent considering Aliiolani for a child approaching the upper elementary grades may want to look into this further with the school, asking how fifth-grade instruction is structured and what supports are in place.
Because Aliiolani is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report. That metric simply does not apply here. The same is true of AP or career-pathway data, which belong to secondary schools. No comparison fact-set was provided to position Aliiolani against other Honolulu-area or Hawaii County schools, so this account stands on the school's own reported results.
The housing market around the school tells its own story. The zip code's typical home value sits well above both the state and national benchmarks, making ownership a steep proposition for most families. Rents are also high and have been climbing, taking a large share of household income. Honolulu's broader context adds nuance. The city is the state's capital and commercial hub, dominated by high-rise development downtown and in Waikīkī, with major employment in tourism, federal military operations, state and county government, and healthcare. The city has been grappling with an aging and declining population as residents leave for the mainland, and climate change is pressing on the tourism economy through drought, sea-level rise, and flooding. Public transit includes TheBus and the developing Skyline rail system. The neighborhood around Aliiolani, on Seventh Avenue in the 96816 zip code, sits in a residential part of Honolulu away from the densest tourist corridors, which families may find appealing relative to the Waikīkī or downtown cores.
The Hawaii Department of Education, the statewide district that governs Aliiolani, did not surface specific recent policy or curriculum changes in the available material. That search came back thin, so rather than guess at district-level shifts, this account leaves that space open.
What emerges is a small, diverse elementary school with genuinely strong early-grade results, a fifth-grade dip that deserves a conversation, and a setting in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. For families already in or drawn to this Honolulu neighborhood, the early-grade academic record is a real draw. The question to bring to the school is what happens between fourth and fifth grade.
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