The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 36% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Ewa Makai Middle School
Ewa Makai Middle School sits on Kapolei Parkway in Ewa Beach, serving grades six through eight as a regular public school within the Hawaii Department of Education. It is a large middle school by enrollment, with roughly equal numbers of students across the three grade levels. The student body is ethnically diverse in a way that reflects the broader Leeward Oahu community: the largest group identifies as Asian, followed by sizable Hispanic and multiracial populations, a smaller Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander contingent, and modest White and Black shares. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
On state assessments, the school's English language arts results are the stronger part of its academic profile. Across all three grades, a majority of students scored proficient or above on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, with eighth grade posting the highest rate and sixth and seventh grades close behind. These are solid numbers for a middle school and suggest that literacy instruction is landing. Science results, measured only in eighth grade through the Hawaii Science Assessment aligned to Next Generation Science Standards, show about half of tested students reaching proficiency. Math is the soft spot. Proficiency drops from sixth grade to seventh and stays at a similar level in eighth, with well under half of students meeting the bar in any grade. The trend is worth a parent's attention: a child entering sixth grade performs better on average than the same cohort does a year later, which may point to a transition challenge or a curricular gap a family would want to discuss with the school. A parent may want to look into this further with the school. Participation rates are near-universal across every subject and grade, which means these results reflect nearly the entire student body rather than a tested subset.
Only one year of assessment data is available, so there is no trend to compare against. The data sections show proficiency snapshots for the current year but no prior-year baselines.
The school reports no information on individualized education program counts, English learner counts, course offerings, staffing ratios, discipline incidents, or attendance. These gaps mean a family cannot assess from this data how the school supports students with disabilities or multilingual learners, what electives or enrichment programs are available, or what the classroom experience looks like in terms of adult attention per student. Because the school serves only middle grades, it has no graduation rate, and that metric does not apply here.
Ewa Beach is part of the rapidly growing Leeward Coast of Oahu, a residential corridor that has absorbed much of the island's westward expansion over the past generation. The locale brief returned no specific walkability or built-environment data, so there is little to characterize about the immediate surroundings beyond the school's address on a major parkway. Housing in the 96706 zip code is expensive by any mainland standard. Typical home values sit well above the national figure and somewhat above the statewide Hawaii benchmark, while rents have been climbing at a moderate pace year over year. The price-to-income ratio is steep, meaning a family buying here would need a strong income to manage ownership. Renting consumes a large share of typical household income as well. For families considering the area, housing costs are a real factor alongside school choice.
The Hawaii Department of Education, the statewide district that governs Ewa Makai, had no specific recent policy, curriculum, or budget changes surfaced in the available research. The district brief found little of lasting impact to report, so there is nothing concrete to fold into the school's current context.
What Ewa Makai offers is a large, diverse middle school with respectable literacy and science outcomes and a clear area for growth in mathematics. Families whose children read well and who want a peer environment reflecting the full mix of Leeward Oahu may find it a workable fit. Those concerned about math preparation for high school should ask direct questions about how the school addresses the drop-off between sixth and seventh grade.
See more original research from School Decision →