The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in English language arts. The lowest is 25% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Lokelani Intermediate School
Lokelani Intermediate School is a regular public school serving grades six through eight in Kihei, on Maui's south shore. It sits within the Hawaii Department of Education, the single statewide district that operates all of Hawaii's public schools. The campus is located on Liloa Drive, just inland from the South Kihei Road corridor that anchors the town's commercial and civic life.
Kihei itself is a sprawling coastal strip, never more than a mile wide, stretching along the southwest Maui coast. The town blends year-round residential neighborhoods with tourism-oriented development. South Kihei Road runs along the ocean, lined with condos, small hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers, while the Pi'ilani Highway parallels it inland. There is no traditional downtown core; civic and commercial life is distributed along the corridor. Walkability is moderate near the beach road, but the overall pattern is car-oriented strip development. Public transit exists through the County of Maui's bus system, with connections to Kahului and Ma'alaea, though stops and hours are limited. The service has been effectively fare-free since the 2023 Maui wildfires. Publicly reported sources note that a new school, Kulanihakoi, opened in 2022 to add educational capacity in the area, and the Kihei Public Library serves as a civic anchor alongside beach parks and the Kihei Aquatic Center.
The school enrolls a moderate number of students across its three grade levels, with roughly even distribution among grades. The student body is diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by Asian, white, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and students of two or more races. About half the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a substantial share of students come from economically disadvantaged households. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here. Title I status was also not reported.
On state assessments, Lokelani's results show a clear pattern. In English language arts, proficiency is strongest in sixth grade and declines moving up through seventh and eighth. The same downward trajectory appears in math, where proficiency drops more steeply across the three grades, with eighth-grade math being the weakest result. Eighth-grade science proficiency sits below a third of tested students. Participation rates are consistently high across all grades and subjects. Only one year of assessment data was available, so no trend over time could be established. Average scale scores were not reported.
The housing market surrounding the school is expensive. Home values in the zip code are well above the state benchmark and far above national levels, though they have declined modestly over the past year. Rents have moved in the opposite direction, rising year over year. The price-to-income ratio is very high, and estimated monthly mortgage costs substantially exceed typical rent, making homeownership a steep barrier for many families in this area. A family considering relocating to this neighborhood for the school should weigh the housing costs carefully.
Several categories of information that would help round out a parent's picture were missing. No data was available on course offerings, program access, staffing ratios, attendance patterns, or discipline. Civil-rights data was not provided. No neighbor comparison fact-set was available to position Lokelani against nearby intermediate schools. Because this is a middle school serving only grades six through eight, there is no graduation rate to report; that measure applies to high schools. The district brief for the Hawaii Department of Education returned no specific recent policy, curriculum, or facility changes relevant to parents.
What the available evidence shows is a moderately sized, diverse intermediate school in a high-cost coastal community, with solid assessment participation but proficiency levels that decline as students move through the grades, particularly in math. A parent weighing this school may want to look into the eighth-grade math decline directly with the school, ask what supports and interventions are in place as students progress, and seek information on staffing, programs, and specialized populations that the current data does not cover.
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