MAKAHA — At Makaha Elementary, where many of the students are from families in poverty, the achievement is worth celebrating.

For the second year in a row, Makaha has met its academic targets under the federal No Child Left Behind law, and this year the school was the only one on the Wai'anae Coast to keep pace. The school also emerged from state-ordered restructuring imposed after several years of poor performance.

While the welcome sign out front and handmade posters mark the gains, Nelson Shigeta, Makaha's principal, worries whether too much attention is being placed on the standardized tests that are at the core of the law. "I don't think we want a nation of test-takers," he said. "I think we want a nation of thinkers."

The U.S. Congress is unlikely to reauthorize the law before the November elections, so the next president — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois or U.S. Sen John McCain of Arizona — will have a role in whether it will be revised or scrapped in favor of a new federal education policy.

No Child Left Behind, passed in 2002 as one of President Bush's first legislative accomplishments, requires public schools to make annual progress toward the goal of having all students proficient in reading and math by 2014. The law is intended to reduce the achievement gap, often linked to race, ethnicity and income, by measuring student performance through standardized tests and holding schools accountable for the results.

In Hawai'i, where the performance benchmarks under the law increased this year, 60 percent of schools failed to make annual targets. Eighty-eight percent of high schools fell below the cut, prompting many educators to complain that the law is unrealistic and designed for schools to fail.

'ZERO TO FIVE'

Obama, in a statement to The Advertiser, said he would reform and properly fund the law. The Hawai'i-born Democrat said the goal of the law is the right one, but it has significant flaws and shortcomings that have limited its effectiveness.

"I believe there are multiple ways of measuring student learning," he said. "I support working with teachers and principals to teach our kids to become more than just good test-takers. I will work with teachers, states and school districts to develop more reliable and more useful measures of student learning. One role of the federal government is to support innovation in these efforts and to assist the education community to learn from best practices."

Obama said he would attempt to reduce the achievement gap through a "zero to five" plan that would invest in state early childhood education programs, expand eligibility for Early Head Start and funding for Head Start, and increase access to preschool and affordable and high-quality childcare. He said he would also create a presidential early learning council to promote collaboration between federal, state and local governments.

In Hawai'i, the state Legislature approved a similar early learning council this year to guide a comprehensive early learning and preschool program.

Obama said he would also create service scholarships to bring high-quality teachers into the inner cities and a "career ladder" initiative to increase teacher preparation and retention in urban areas.

"Public schools must also be the great equalizer, allowing every American, regardless of race or class or background, to achieve his or her potential," he said. "From the moment our children step into a classroom, the single most important factor in determining their achievement is their teacher."

SCHOOL CHOICE

McCain, in a statement to The Advertiser from his campaign, said he would change No Child Left Behind to help parents whose children qualify for federal money for tutoring purchase it directly "without having to deal with the same education establishment that failed their children in the first place."

McCain said he would give parents greater choice through the expansion of federally funded school vouchers, modeled after the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The program offers scholarships of up to $7,500 so parents can send their children to private schools in the District of Columbia.

"Over the years, Americans have heard a lot of tired rhetoric about education," the Republican said. "We've heard it in the endless excuses of people who seem more concerned about their own position than about our children. We've heard it from politicians who accept the status quo rather than stand up for real change in our public schools. Parents ask only for schools that are safe, teachers who are competent, and diplomas that open doors of opportunity.

"When a public system fails repeatedly to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of their children. Some parents may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private school. Many will choose a charter school. No entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity."

McCain said he would also support alternative certification and teacher recruitment programs. He would offer financial bonuses, from a pool of money controlled by school principals, to teachers who work in the most troubled schools.

"You can be a Nobel laureate and not qualify to teach in most public schools today," he said. "They don't have all the proper credits in educational theory or methodology — all they have is learning and the desire and ability to share it. If we're putting the interests of students first, then those qualifications should be enough."

GROWTH MODEL

Under No Child Left Behind, Hawai'i started with a benchmark of having 30 percent of students proficient in reading and 10 percent proficient in math and is gradually increasing the targets to get to 100 percent in both categories by 2014. This year, the goals were 58 percent proficiency in reading and 46 percent proficiency in math.

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said the law, while well-intentioned, stifles innovation. "It's like putting a round peg in a square hole," she said.

The state has applied, unsuccessfully, to be part of the federal government's growth model pilot program, where schools that are making progress can avoid punishment even if they do not meet the benchmarks set in the law.

These schools, Hamamoto and others believe, may be making remarkable gains but are judged as underperforming largely because they started so far below the threshold for proficiency.

Linda Smith, senior policy adviser to Gov. Linda Lingle, said the Republican governor supports Hamamoto's request for a growth model but also believes in the law's accountability provisions.

"We believe it's important to measure to be able to determine that you're making progress, and that was the fundamental premise behind the No Child Left Behind Act, and that's why the governor has consistently supported the act since she's been in office," Smith said.

INFLEXIBLE APPROACH

Smith also said the Legislature should lift a cap on startup charter schools so parents would have more alternatives.

"Certainly that is an alternative that we hope will stay on the table for both parents and teachers, as well as students, to consider, if they feel that those non-traditional teaching arrangements improve their ability to meet the No Child Left Behind standards," she said.

Steve Hirakami, the principal of Hawai'i Academy of Arts & Science High School, a charter school in Pahoa on the Big Island, said he believes the law should be revised so the goals are more attainable. He also said he hopes the next president will promote charter schools as alternatives.

Hirakami said the law has led to a transfer of federal education money to outside consultants brought in to help schools that fail to make annual progress. "It shouldn't be about restructuring a majority of our schools and taking away federal dollars and giving it to for-profit (education management consultants)," he said.

State Rep. Maile Shimabukuro, D-45th (Wai'anae, Makaha, Makua), said she is concerned that some schools are minimizing art, music, physical education and hands-on learning experiences because of the fixation on test scores.

At Makaha, for example, students benefit from a partnership with the Hoa'Aina O Makaha farm next door.

"I think the standards are just unrealistic, especially when you're talking about a place like the Wai'anae Coast, where we have a very high percentage of special education students," said Shimabukuro, who serves on the state House Education Committee. "And to have this cookie-cutter approach when we have these different kinds of students, it should be a lot more flexible, and I think, on the whole, the law has done more harm than good."

SUCCESS TAKES EFFORT

Shigeta, the Makaha Elementary principal, believes his school's progress is based on several years of coordinated effort by his staff and teachers.

Like other schools on the Wai'anae Coast, many of Makaha's students are disadvantaged — more than 80 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — and many require special education services. The school also has to account for high student turnover, because many students are from families that move frequently because of a lack of affordable housing.

As much as Shigeta does not like to focus on the tests — which may only offer a snapshot of student performance — his staff has been aggressive about test preparation. Teachers and even custodians have volunteered to mentor students who are having trouble, and teachers have been known to come in early with waffles or Spam musubi on test days to get students in the right mood.

Attendance on test days — which is one of the performance measures — is so important and so drilled into students that some panic if they are even a little late. Shigeta recalls one student who was so nervous before the tests because she arrived late that she was sent to her mentor for reassurance.

"Schools have to be smarter," he said. "You can still teach the other things that are important, but you have to teach the things that are going to be on the tests."