Last spring, more than 92,500 public school students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 10 took the Hawai‘i State Assessment to determine how well they were meeting the state’s academic standards. Students took the six-day exam during a 2 1/2-week testing window that lasted until April 24. During that same testing window, students took the TerraNova, which measures how students compare with national norms.

The Hawai‘i State Assessment asks students to write out their answers and show how they solved math problems. Schools can appeal the HSA results and they must do so by July 29. Until then, the results are considered preliminary.

STATEWIDE AVERAGES

These scores, released yesterday, give a broad overview of how Hawai‘i students taking the state assessment performed. About 65 percent of public school students are proficient in reading. That compares with 39 percent when testing first began in 2002. Likewise, 44 percent of public school students demonstrated proficiency in math, compared with 19 percent in 2002.

RESULTS BY SCHOOL

These scores, showing how individual schools fared on the 2009 battery of tests, are scheduled to be released in August.

ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS

Schoolwide scores on the Hawai‘i State Assessment are used to determine whether schools met their targets under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, or made “adequate yearly progress.” Results released yesterday show that 97 out of 284 schools, or 34 percent, made their goals. That’s down from 42 percent last year.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Parents of public school students will receive individualized assessments of their children’s strengths and challenges — and suggestions about how they can help — when the latest individual scores go home in the coming weeks, according to the Department of Education. As with all tests, experts advise that this is only one way to measure your child’s performance. Parents also should consider teacher evaluations and day-to-day homework to determine how well their children are doing in school.