DIXFIELD – Directors of SAD 21 learned Monday night that student scores on state assessment tests were on the upswing.

Gone were the disappointing scores in high school mathematics.

“We’re still below the state average, but the state as a whole is having problems with math,” Dirigo High School Principal Dan Hart said.

Math scores jumped seven points from SAD 21’s previous year’s scores, falling two points shy of the new state average of 529. Last year, the state average was 527.

Hart said he believes that the high school’s increase might have been the result of teaching math to freshmen every day, a change from previous years.

In 2001-02, Dirigo High School 11th-graders scored an average of 522 points, six points less than the state average of 528. In 2002-03, they dropped to seven points below the state average of 527.

This year, Hart said, secondary school math teachers would place more emphasis on instruction with graphs and charts, as used to interpret information in the text.

Other action plan endeavors to help all students meet or exceed the Maine Learning Results include:

• Considering having math classes meet every day for all students.

• Continuing contextual instruction.

• Developing and implementing assessments and instructional rubrics that emphasize mastery in applications, discrete math and geometric skills.

• Preparing students for the MEA during the second semester of the grade 10 year and each ranking period of the grade 11 year.

Canton Director Scott Verrill and other directors called the higher scores “fantastic.”

“If you maintain that trajectory, you’ll break the state average,” Verrill added.

The Maine Educational Assessment is designed to measure student and school progress in achieving the high academic standards set forth in Maine’s Learning Results.

All Maine students in grades four, eight and 11 are included in the MEA program.