BLOOM TWP. | For the staff and administration at Sandridge Elementary School, the much-delayed arrival of last year's Illinois Standards Achievement Test results seem to have been worth the wait.

Principal Leroy Coleman shared the school's 2006 ISAT exam results with parents, board members and others during Wednesday's Sandridge Elementary District 172 School Board meeting.

Coleman gave a Power Point presentation showing the percentages of students who met or exceeded state ISAT standards and the gains made in those numbers since 2003-04.

Particular areas of improvement were in third grade reading and eighth grade math.

"We're on the move," he said. "Everything that we do here revolves around teaching and learning."

Superintendent Diane Dyer-Dawson extended congratulations to Coleman and the faculty for "a job well done."

The release of last year's ISAT results came just days before Illinois students are scheduled to begin taking this year's standardized tests. Testing begins on Monday.

Glitches, scoring problems, and delivery delays plagued last year's ISATs and resulted in the late release of results across the state.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires all states to set annual achievement targets in reading and math and to measure each public school's and district's performance.

In Illinois, schools were expected to have 47.5 percent of their students meet or exceed state standards in reading and math last year in order to show adequate yearly progress, or AYP. In order to make AYP this year, Coleman said, schools will need to have 55 percent of their students meet or exceed state standards in reading and math.

Schools that consecutively fail to make AYP face possible sanctions. The ultimate goal of the federal law is to have all students meet or exceed standards in reading and math by 2014.