Auburn’s MEA scores are up.

Lewiston’s are down.

But school officials from both cities say the test results are ever changing and scores from a single year don’t mean a lot by themselves.

“I think the most important thing is to look at the trends,” said Auburn Assessment Director Steve Clark.

The Maine Educational Assessment, or MEA, is a standardized state exam given to students in grades four, eight and 11. Established in 1984 and revised four years ago, the test measures how well students meet Maine’s tough Learning Results standards in reading, writing, health, math, science, social studies and arts.

Students receive scores between 501 and 580 and assessments that say “does not meet the standards,” “partially meets the standards,” “meets the standards” and “exceeds the standards.”

Schools are judged failing or successful based on their student scores.

In Auburn, 2002-03 MEA scores jumped from the year before in fourth grade math and writing and eighth grade writing, social studies and arts. And in what Auburn officials call a significant turn, more and more students moved from “not meeting” to “partially meeting” the standards.

In eighth grade, for example, 47 percent of students partially met Maine’s math standards, up from 31 percent the year before.

“I’m really impressed and pleased with the elementary and middle school level,” Clark said.

At the high school, the news was not so good. Reading, writing, math, science and social studies scores were down one to three points.

Over three years, 11th-grade and eighth-grade scores stayed the same or fell a couple of points. Fourth grade scores were not available for all three years.

In Lewiston, 2002-03 MEA scores fell in every grade. The biggest drop was in eighth grade arts and reading.

Writing saw the only increases. Those scores rose one point in each grade.

“Generally, that’s where we’ve been kind of stuck,” said Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque.

Test experts believe one point changes, whether increases or decreases, are not statistically significant.

Over three years, Lewiston’s scores dropped up to six points.

Scores from both Lewiston and Auburn generally fell below state average.

Mount Katahdin

School officials in each city said they face challenges in increasing scores. In Lewiston, for example, six percent of students need help learning English, 18 percent of students are in special education and more than half of elementary students are poor.

Some school systems have small mountains to climb, Levesque said, “ours is Mount Katahdin.”

In an attempt to raise test scores, Lewiston has increased and focused teacher training. Officials have standardized curriculum so students who move from one Lewiston elementary school to another won’t miss lessons. The school system has offered more after-school and summer classes, increased the number of math and science courses students need to take and worked to align lessons with the Maine Learning Results.

And in mid-November, Lewiston will start using software that school officials created to track student scores. For the first time, teachers and administrators will be able to see how an individual student, grade or school is doing in each subject at the end of every quarter.

To raise their scores, Auburn officials have started using a new math and reading curriculum. The school system has implemented writing assessments twice a year. And literacy specialists and math coaches have started working with teachers who want help planning lessons.

Officials believe the changes may have been partially responsible for some of the jumps they’ve seen in fourth and eighth grade MEA scores. They hope it will mean increases in high school scores soon.

And an upward trend.

“I’m really interested in next year’s scores,” Clark said.

ltice@sunjournal.com