At Eastern Pulaski. 85.8 percent of students passed both portions of the test this year, up from 77.2 percent last year.

Statewide, more than 70 percent of students passed both portions of the test this year, up from 68.2 percent last year. It marked the third straight year those rates have climbed. Those gains mirrored an area- and statewide trend of climbing scores on the ISTEP+, given each spring to third- through eighth-graders across the state.

The spring 2011 ISTEP+ test is based on Indiana's Academic Standards and includes the following grade levels and content areas:

• English/language arts in grades 3-8
• Mathematics in grades 3-8
• Science in grades 4 and 6
• Social studies in grades 5 and 7

The Oregon-Davis Schools ranked first in Indiana for improvement. Out of 292 school corporations, Oregon-Davis students displayed more than 14 percent improvement in all grades for English and Math. It is one of four corporations that showed double digit improvements and sits 10 points higher than any other school corporation in Starke County.

For the second time, this exam was administered in the spring during two assessment windows. The Applied Skills Assessment, consisting of essay and open-ended questions was administered between Feb. 28 and March 9. The Multiple-Choice Assessment was administered between April 25 and May 4. Schools received student scores in June.

The cut scores for this version of the ISTEP+ were developed by more than 100 teachers from across the state of Indiana following the first administration of the assessment.