After months of waiting, Red Bank’s school district released the results of the third- and fourth-grade Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (ASK) standardized exam.

District Superintendent Dr. John Krewer announced Monday that there was a 26.5-percent reduction in the Primary School’s percentage of students who scored only partially proficient in the language arts portion of the ASK exam. Students also surpassed the district’s goal in the mathematics portion of the test.

"There’s been an incredible improvement," Krewer said. "These now-fifth-graders, who took the test last year, will have increased confidence once they find out they improved."

During the 2001-2002 year, 29.5 percent of the regular students receiving no additional help were partially proficient in language arts. In 2002-2003, only 3 percent were partially proficient.

In math, 6.5 percent of the students increased in their proficiency levels from the 2001-2002 school year, exceeding the districts original goal of 5 percent.

The results from the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) exam will be presented at the October Board of Education meeting.

Although there has been some improvement, the district is far from its goal, Krewer said.

In an effort to secure further improvement, the district plans to implement Levings Learning — an Oklahoma-based standardized online assessment testing service — sometime this year.

The program will be implemented at no cost to the taxpayers.

Through the program, teachers will be able to download existing standardized tests or construct their own sample tests, and administer them as practice tests.

"Teachers will be able to establish assessment early to decide what goals need to be met," said Elizabeth Keshish, the district’s curriculum supervisor. "The students are not restricted to taking these tests at schools. They can do it from home, or wherever they can find Internet access."