Fountain Hills Unified School District did well in the most recent AzMERIT testing, according to Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney, though he admits three is always room for improvement.

Adopted a couple of years ago, AzMERIT took the place of AIMS as Arizona schools’ standardized instrument for measuring standards.

Results were recently provided to individual districts and, for the most part, Fountain Hills students are outpacing their peers.

Dr. Sweeney went over the AzMERIT results at the Aug. 24 School Board Meeting, saying that the percentage of students passing the exam locally is above the state average in every area except for sixth grade.

Sweeney said that the weaker areas have already been discussed with administration and personnel, explaining that FHUSD will not settle for anything less than excelling in all areas.

For the results, “passing” the AzMERIT test means that a student was determined to be “proficient” or “highly proficient” in the individual areas.

Comparing FHUSD to its own results from 2015, the local district has moved up in every area save third and sixth grade, where there was a slight dip.

As for the math portion of the exam, FHUSD is above the state average in every grade level except sixth and eighth.

Sweeney noted an interesting trend, however.

“We usually track close to the state,” he said. “Where there’s an increase or decrease at the state level, we see similar movement at FHUSD. That’s the same in math.

Based on two years of AzMERIT data, Sweeney reported that the general trend for FHUSD is one of improvement.

He said that specific areas and grade levels have been pinpointed for needing additional attention, with professional development focused on both content and pedagogy; building upon last year’s work focusing on priority standards and vertical alignment; scheduling and use of instructional time and curriculum resources.

Dr. Sweeney ended by saying there is room for growth, with Governing Board Vice President Edith Stock adding that, “we’re moving in the right direction.”