Kihei Charter School, Kihei HI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Kihei Charter School

Kihei Charter School sits in the town of Kihei on Maui's south shore, a coastal strip community where residential neighborhoods and tourism-oriented businesses run side by side along South Kihei Road. The town has no concentrated downtown; civic and commercial life spreads along the oceanfront corridor, with beach parks, a public library, and small shopping centers serving both year-round residents and visitors. Research and technology facilities, including a marine sanctuary office and a computing center, sit alongside hotels and restaurants. Public transit runs through the County of Maui bus system, with limited stops and hours, and service has been effectively fare-free since the aftermath of the 2023 wildfires.

The school is a public charter serving kindergarten through twelfth grade, with an enrollment large enough to span the full grade range but with small early-elementary cohorts that grow through middle and high school. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students making up the next largest groups. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here.

On state assessments, the school's results follow a pattern worth understanding. Early elementary grades are a relative strength. Third and fourth grade show solid proficiency in both math and English language arts, with math results in those grades among the school's highest. Fifth grade marks a sharp drop in both subjects, and the middle grades are uneven. Seventh grade recovers in both math and English, landing among the stronger results, while sixth and eighth grade math sit lower. Science proficiency, tested in fifth and eighth grade, lands in a middling-to-lower range.

Across all tested grades combined, English language arts sits near the midpoint, math comes in somewhat below that, and science trails further. Only one year of data was available, so there is no trend to report; a parent tracking improvement over time would need to look to the school directly for longitudinal results.

The school does not appear in a neighbor comparison set in the data provided, and no comparison positioning against other Hawaii schools or districts is available here.

Housing in the Kihei zip code is expensive relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well above the Hawaii state figure and far above the national one, and rents are high. The price-to-income ratio is steep, and rents consume a large share of typical household income. Home values have declined modestly year over year while rents have risen, so a family weighing a move here should expect a housing market where buying is a stretch for most incomes and renting is also costly.

Several data sections were absent. No graduation rate was provided, though the school serves twelfth grade and graduates a senior class each year, so a parent may want to ask the school directly for its graduation and postsecondary outcomes. No information on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or programs such as Advanced Placement, career pathways, or dual credit was available in the data. Civil-rights data was not reported. The district brief for the Hawaii Department of Education turned up no specific parent-relevant policy, curriculum, or facility changes of lasting impact, so there is little to pass along from the district level.

What the assembled picture supports: Kihei Charter offers a continuous kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade pathway in a single school, in a tourism-economy Maui town with high housing costs and limited transit. Its academic results are strongest in the early grades, variable through middle school, and unaccompanied by trend, graduation, or program data here. A family considering this school would benefit from asking directly about high school course offerings, college and career pathways, support services, and recent graduating-class outcomes.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

90-94%Cohort of 62 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

59 schools plotted. 4 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 53% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 470%

School 70% · District 51% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 45% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 41% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 755%

School 55% · District 38% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 36% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 50% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 52% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 56% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 54% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 54% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 54% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Science

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 49% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 43% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state 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-income43%Higher-income74%31 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income46%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income33%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income37%Higher-income57%20 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income74%42 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income47%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income36%Higher-income71%35 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income65%Higher-income73%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income0%Higher-income22%22 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income37%Higher-income24%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income63%26 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income24%Higher-income27%3 pp gap