RUMFORD – At Mountain Valley High School, students must take three high level math and science courses to graduate. Their classes are more challenging than in years past. Their teachers spent hours explaining why the state’s standardized test was important.

So when Principal Bruce Lindberg learned that Mountain Valley’s test scores improved in every category this year – taking a big leap in two of them – he was very, very happy.

“Extremely pleased,” he said.

His school was one of the few in Maine to see such an improvement.

For the sixth year in a row, scores on the Maine Educational Assessment, or MEA, are largely flat across the state. Since they received their scores last month, many school officials have spent their days poring over their data, trying to figure out what went wrong.

But in western Maine, some schools are quietly celebrating.

Their scores went up.

“We’re not satisfied yet,” Lindberg said of Mountain Valley High School. “But we’re going up and that’s the key.”

The MEA is a standardized exam given to students in grades four, eight and 11. It measures how well students meet Maine’s Learning Results standards in reading, writing, math and science.

Students receive scores between 501 and 580, which determine whether they meet the standards. Although there are minor fluctuations from year to year, changes of two to four points are significant, said MEA Coordinator Brud Maxcy.

On average, scores haven’t changed since the MEA was revised in 1998.

But in some western Maine school systems this year, scores took a sudden jump. Others saw modest increases, but saw them consistently over the last three years.

Both are meaningful, said Maxcy.

Among area public high schools, Dirigo High School in Dixfield and Monmouth Academy saw the biggest one-time gains, with seven point increases math. Poland Regional High School and Mountain Valley High School in Rumford saw their average math scores jump by six points. Rangeley Lakes Regional High School’s writing scores increased by six points.

Officials from many schools said they made drastic changes last year just to increase scores.

“We developed an MEA action plan,” said Derek Pierce, principal of Poland Regional High School.

After analyzing last year’s scores, teachers tweaked lessons to fill in gaps and started working with students on test-taking skills. The school began requiring underclassmen to take two math courses in one year so they would be better prepared for the MEA during their junior year. And, for the first time, the high school offered the 11th-graders an incentive – a class picnic – if they performed well.

“There were a range of strategies just to make sure they’re doing their best,” Pierce said.

Poland Regional, which has been working on student writing skills for years, was also one of three area high schools to see some consistent improvement. Its writing scores have gone from 533 to 534 to 537 in the last three years. Lisbon High School saw continuous improvement in reading and Telstar High School in Bethel saw continuous improvement in math.

But while they celebrate the improved scores, some officials said they weren’t ready to relax yet. Except for Monmouth Academy, most schools’ scores were still at the state average.

“I know we’d like to do better than state average,” Pierce said.

Like their counterparts from low-scoring schools, officials from improving schools plan to evaluate the data they get from the MEAs. They hope to find ways to increase their scores more next year.

Schools are judged to be failing or successful based on their MEA scores. The state is expected to release its list of schools in need of improvement later this month.