Madison school board members got some good news Thursday, as principals of three of the district's four schools reported improvements in test scores.

Preliminary results from the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests taken by students in March show improved scores in most categories at Harris, Long, and Madison Middle schools. Information on high school test results was not presented because the principal was sick that day.

Final results will be sent out to school districts later, and be made available to the public as part of the districts' and schools' report cards in late October or early November.

Interim Superintendent Sandra Schroeder said there has been "consistent" improvement, in part a result of changes made throughout the district over the past several years.

"It's a very positive, upward trend. We've put a lot of pieces into place," she added.

As part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Illinois schools must make adequate yearly progress. That is determined through an increasingly stringent percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards. According to the Act, by 2014 all students must meet or exceed those standards. This year's AYP target is generally 70 percent, with a few minor variations allowed.

Bernard Long Accelerated Elementary School, which houses the districts' fourth and fifth grade classes, made AYP in math and "safe harbor" status in reading. Safe harbor means that although they did not meet AYP, there were some significant improvements.

Harris Accelerated Elementary School, which houses the kindergarten to third-grade program, did not make AYP but showed "upward gains," according to Schroeder.

"We're pleased with that," she said. "We're focusing on literacy, and we have every confidence we're going to make improvements there."

Madison Accelerated Middle School made AYP in math, but showed some problems in reading among eighth-graders.

At Harris, preliminary results show 40 percent of students tested - in this case third-graders - met or exceeded state standards in reading, a slight drop from last year's 42.4 percent. In math, 66 percent met or exceeded state standards, compared to 59.1 percent the year before.

Harris Principal Valeska Hill noted in her presentation all students have shown "academic growth."

She also said that of 35 third-graders that tested at "below standard" in reading, 17 were "bubble students within one or two percentage points of meeting state standards.

At Bernard Long Accelerated Elementary School, the school made adequate yearly progress in math, and safe harbor status in reading. Safe harbor means that although they did not meet AYP, there was a significant improvement in some areas tested.

Principal Terrien Fennoy said that in all cases, there were improvements in scores from all the fourth- and fifth-grade students from their tests the year before.

"We are just elated with the success our students made this year," she said. "We are in a very good position and hope to build on that."

Madison Accelerated Middle School Principal Rob Miller said that tracking the same class over several years showed some classes have made dramatic improvements.

He said reading scores for the current seventh-grade class rose from 28 percent to 70 percent meeting or exceeding state standards over four years, while the current eighth-grade class went from 51 percent to 74 percent in math over five years.

He said the tests show one major problem area - eighth-grade reading skills. Over the past five years, their scores have hovered between 30 to 37 percent, and were at 35 percent last year.

"We have a real issue with literacy," he said. "The bottom line is that we have to target that."

Schroeder agreed the district would focus on that group, and is putting grant money into programs to improve their reading levels.

However, over-all, Miller said the trend is good, with the average reading scores going from 22 percent in 2002-2003 to 53 percent in 2008-2009, and math scores from 18 percent to 69 percent over the same period.

"I'm very happy with the direction we are going," he said.

Preliminary ISAT results

(percentage meeting or exceeding state standards)

Madison Middle School

Reading: 53.4 percent

Math: 69.1 percent

Bernard Long School

Reading: 47 percent

Math: 73 percent

Harris School

Reading: 40 percent

Math: 66 percent

Madison High School

Unavailable

Madison School District