OXFORD – The Guy E. Rowe School made “huge gains” in its latest Maine Educational Assessment scores in math and science, SAD 17 Supt. Mark Eastman told the school board recently.

Rowe school fourth-graders scored 15 points higher in math, 10 points higher in science, and seven points higher in reading. Harrison Elementary School also showed a nine-point gain in its math scores.

“Those are huge gains” in a single year, Eastman said. For a score to be statistically significant, a three to five point differential is needed.

Rowe School Principal George Sincerbeaux, in a memo, credits the gains to a $61,582 grant the school received in reading and math in May of 2002.

Sincerbeaux said the grant enabled the school to pilot a new “Investigations” mathematics curriculum one year before it was implemented district-wide. The money also paid to send staff to reading and math workshops, and to buy more materials and supplies.

The school also recently received news that it will receive a three-year Reading First grant for $466,000 that will allow many new programs to promote early literacy education for students.

Studies show the probability of remaining a good reader at the end of grade 4 is much higher if a student is a good reader at grade 1.

Eastman and District Curriculum Coordinator Cathy Elkins told board members Nov. 15 that the district is using the MEAs as only one piece of data to gauge how well students are meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Overall, the district’s March 2004 MEA scores for grades 4, 8 and 11 have improved over the past three years, if only slightly. However, most scores still are a few points below the state average for MEA scores.

“We’re on the right track,” Elkins said.

In terms of the No Child Left Behind Act, all elementary schools met the standard for “annual yearly progress” as a whole school in reading and math, although grade 4 did not meet AYP in math for the sub-group of special education.

At the middle school level, eighth-graders did not meet annual yearly progress in reading and math in several sub-groups. Eleventh-graders met the standard in all areas.