The math and reading results for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments II tests were released Wednesday, and an area administrator said students in the Albert Lea School District were right around the state average.

The results will be used by teachers and administrators as a tool in setting district goals and finding areas to improve.

“All of this is really just about reinforcing where we need to put our improvement efforts next year and where we were successful this year,” said Judy Knudtson, district director of curriculum.

Grades three through eight were tested in math and reading, grade 10 was tested in reading and grade 11 was tested in math.

Knudtson said while it looks like the Albert Lea School District is around state average overall, the scores typically rise and fall from year to year. The scores often vary, with some above state average and some below state average, she said.

For example, 77.9 percent of 10th-graders met or exceeded standards for the reading test, compared to 74.2 percent across the state. For the seventh-grade math test, 65.9 percent of students met or exceeded standards, compared with 62.6 percent statewide.

At the same time, 74.2 percent of Albert Lea third-graders met or exceeded standards on the reading test, while 78.4 percent did statewide. For the eighth-graders in Albert Lea, 53.3 percent met or exceeded the math standards, while 59.6 percent did statewide.

The district doesn’t simply look at whether the numbers of the seventh-grade class went up or down. Instead, Knudtson said they often track a class as it gets older to view the progress of that particular group of students.

The lowest scoring area in the Albert Lea School District was 11th-grade math, where 39.3 percent of the students met or exceeded standards. The state average was 41.6 percent. In the United South Central School District, 35.8 percent met or exceeded standards, and 29 percent met or exceeded standards in Glenville-Emmons School District. In Alden-Conger school district, 46.6 percent of 11th-graders met or exceeded the math standard.

Knudtson said these scores are not uncommon. While students are still learning, she said the gap between those that don’t meet standards and those who do can grow as they get older. She also said students often become more test weary or test savvy as they get older, so they don’t do as well as they can.

Sixth-grade math was a low-scoring area for some of the smaller districts in the area. In Alden-Conger, 37.5 percent met or exceeded standards. In United South Central, 45.3 percent met or exceeded standards. In Glenville-Emmons, 47.8 percent met or exceeded standards.

Statewide, 63.7 percent of sixth-graders met or exceeded standards of the math test. For Albert Lea, 70.9 percent met or exceed standards of the sixth-grade math test.

At the same time, a greater number of sixth-graders met or exceeded the standard for the reading test. In Alden-Conger, 65 percent of sixth-graders met or exceeded standards. In Glenville-Emmons, 65.2 percent of sixth-graders met or exceeded standards. In USC, 66.7 percent of sixth-graders met or exceeded standards. Across the state, 72.6 percent met the standard for the reading test.

Knudtson said they look for anything that could have caused the test scores to be low or high, like a large number of illnesses in a particular grade.

The district will mail each student his or her official results around the end of July, Knudtson said.

The No Child Left Behind Act states that all schools must be 100 percent proficient in math and reading by the year 2014, and standardized tests are used to measure proficiency. The tests are based on a standard of what a student should know in a particular grade.

These numbers can’t all be taken at face value, and teachers and faculty across the area will use the data as part of their improvement plans for next year.

Teachers and administrators will be using more in-depth data from each test. They will look at categories in both the math and reading tests to see where the weak areas are for students. When teachers use these results, they will look at the results for the incoming class. For example, a fifth-grade teacher would look at the test results of the previous year’s fourth-grade class to identify strong and weak areas.

In Albert Lea, the data from the tests is loaded onto a software program that allows teachers and staff to easily view specific areas and details from the testing, Knudtson said.

“2014, No Child Left Behind aside, we are about continuous improvement, and we are about trying to enable all kids to do as well as they possibly can,” Knudtson said.