The College and Career Readiness Indicators reports, released today by Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education and the state Department of Education, “demonstrate improvements by public school students at every step of the college-readiness pipeline,” a press release says. The annually released reports are meant to provide data revealing how prepared Hawaii’s high school graduates are for college. 

The reports include various metrics, including the following:

• The percentage of students taking Advanced Placement exams increased to 24 percent
• College enrollment among graduates increased from 53 percent in 2011 to 54 percent in 2012.
• The percentage of students who enrolled in University of Hawaii college-level math and English courses increased from 2011 rates by 4 percent each, to 24 percent and 42 percent, respectively.
• The percentage of students requiring remedial English classes dropped from 2011 to 31 percent last year. (The percentage of students requiring remedial math classes stayed the same.)

Some schools stand out for seeing double-digit increases over a two-year period in college enrollment rates, including Kauai’s Kapaa High (from 46 percent in 2010 to 59 percent in 2012) and Farrington High (from 36 percent in 2010 to 48 percent in 2012). Rates at Pahoa and Baldwin high schools also jumped by 11 percent between 2010 and 2012. 

DOE Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi attributed the “culture around using data for improvement” for contributing to growing college preparedness among the state’s public school graduates.

Karen Lee, executive director of P-20, said the data is integral to the campaign’s goal of ensuring that more than half of all of Hawaii’s working age adults have college degrees by 2025.

Kaiser High School’s 2010 graduates. (Katherine Poythress/Civil Beat)

— Alia Wong