Test scores released by the state show students in St. John Parish Schools improved in 26 of 30 testing areas for the iLEAP, LEAP and GEE examinations.

The improvements didn’t come without hard work on the part of educators, students, family members, mentors and volunteers.

It should be noted that in English/language arts and match, results were better in six of eight categories each in 2009 when compared to 2008 and that in science and social studies, improvement was shown in all seven categories.

Seventh-grade students showed the greatest improvement — six points in ELA, 18 points in math, 20 points in science and 18 points in social studies — but every grade group did considerably better this year over last.

Third-grade students improved in all four categories, as did fifth and ninth and students taking the GEE.

Work remains to be done at the sixth-grade level, where ELA remained at 64 and math dropped two points while science was up two and social studies 14.

SJPS officials have be tweaking and tuning to help students do two things:

1. Have a better understanding of the materials

2. Have a better understanding of the language used in the testing programs

And, as with anything else, communications is the key. Just because a child may not get support at home to help them prepare doesn’t mean a surrogate can’t show they care and offer that help.

It’s through communication that the child realizes and understands that someone truly cares and truly wants them to do their best.

Those are the times when all of the efforts pay off in better scores.