The Neelyville R-IV School District once again took the top spot with the highest APR score in the county at 93.6 percent and receiving accreditation.
Increasing from a 92.5 percent score last year, Neelyville Curriculum Director Heather Wells said the district always is striving to find new ways to reach higher standards.
"It's not about competing with other schools," Superintendent Brad Hagood said. "It's about doing our job for the kids, community and district."
APR points are drawn from attendance and graduation rates, college and career readiness, academic achievement and subgroup achievement.
DESE defines "subgroups" as disabled, minority, free and reduced lunch and other students.
Districts scoring above 90 percent are designated as accredited with distinction, those falling below 70 percent are scored as provisional accreditation and those falling below 50 percent risk loosing accreditation completely.
The district saw increases in math and English scores, but the biggest increase came from college and career readiness scores, which looks at test scores from the ACT, SAT, COMPASS, ASVAB and WorkKeys, as well as post-secondary and advanced placement courses. Of the 30 possible points, the district was awarded all 30 points.
This was an increase of 4.5 points from last year.
To raise the scores, Wells said data driven instruction was focused on throughout the entire district.
Data from last year's DESE and classrooms assessments provided teachers with information from certain areas which could be improved.
Neelyville also aced the attendance and graduation rates once again scoring 10 out of 10 points in each category, exceeding 90 percent.
The past several years, Hagood said, a focus has been made to be more diligent about secretaries making contact with parents when a student is not at school.
Hagood also credits the Saturday School and credit recovery program to help students make up missed hours or retake classes they have failed.
The two programs are in place to prevent students from falling behind. Hagood said once a student falls behind, the percentage of dropping out becomes greater.
"We are trying to keep the students in school as well as graduating with a high school diploma," he said.
Incentives are also in place to encourage students to make it to school at Neelyville.
In grades seven through 12, Wells explained if a student has perfect attendance and is passing their class, they are exempted from taking the final exam.
The district's handbook policy also states if a student exceeds six absentees, they are not allowed to attend or participate in any extra curricular activities for the remainder of the semester.
While Neelyville shined in APR scores, science did see a slight decrease in score from 12 points last year to nine this year.
"We are working hard with the science department to apply knowledge of working hard with students to increased rigourous assessments," Wells said.
While Neelyville continues to hold the top APR score in the county, Hagood said he wants to see a 100 percent score, as he believes everyone in the district does as well.
Hagood said the saying, "lets be happy, but not satisfied," comes to mind when he looks ahead for Neelyville.
"I'm very happy with the APR scores and everything here at Neelyville," Hagood said. "But if we get satisfied it tends to make it easier to become stagnant."
Hagood and Wells both agreed to keep Neelyville's numbers high, it takes a team effort and a drive for student success.
"The whole district and team have worked hard to get where we are at and keep us there," Hagood said. "This was a team effort and I'm fortunate to work with the best."