Neither of the schools required to retake portions of the Hawai'i State Assessment last year because of testing irregularities met targets under the No Child Left Behind law, but both 'Aiea Intermediate and Wai'anae Intermediate saw gains in reading and math scores.

The scores for those two schools were released yesterday after being calculated separately from other public schools by state Department of Education testing officials.

Scores also were released for Linapuni Elementary, which did make "adequate yearly progress" under the federal law. Linapuni's scores were delayed because the school serves only kindergarten through the second grade, so its students were assessed differently from other elementary schools.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that schools must steadily increase the number of students proficient in core subjects, with the goal of having all students proficient by 2014. In Hawai'i, the measure of proficiency is the high-stakes Hawai'i State Assessment, which is administered each spring.

At both Wai'anae and 'Aiea, testing was temporarily halted in April after the DOE was alerted to irregularities that may have compromised the integrity of the test. At Wai'anae, students were given practice test questions and answers that officials said had the potential to significantly increase student scores. At 'Aiea, students were given a practice test too close to the actual test date, a violation of DOE protocol.

Principals at the schools could not be immediately reached for comment yesterday, but Wai'anae principal John Vannatta previously apologized to the school and community and defended his students.

"Wai'anae has made great strides in implementing a standards-based curriculum to help our students achieve at higher levels," he said in April. "This incident in no way reflects on our students, who are honest and above board while preparing for and taking the Hawai'i State Assessment."

Students did show strong growth in reading and math, with the number of students meeting proficiency in reading jumping to 28 percent from 14 percent, while math was up 5 percentage points to 13 percent.

A significantly more dramatic jump would have been required to meet No Child Left Behind requirements, however, which rose this year from 30 percent to 44 percent proficient in reading and from 10 percent to 28 percent proficient in math.

Wai'anae Intermediate has now fallen under the strictest sanctions under the federal law, but is already under state oversight with a private education company hired to "restructure," or overhaul, the school.

Despite missing "adequate yearly progress," 'Aiea Intermediate remains in good standing under No Child Left Behind, pending test scores next year. 'Aiea students as a whole exceeded expectations — 53 percent making the cut in reading and 46 percent meeting the goal in math — but students in all subpopulations must also meet the same targets, including disadvantaged, special-education and English-language learners. The DOE did not clarify where 'Aiea fell short.

At Linapuni, 55 percent of students met or exceeded reading proficiency requirements, while 14 percent made it in math, enough to qualify the school as a "safe harbor" for showing adequate improvement.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.