Conroe ISD has received its preliminary results on the district's standardized testing, and the results are positive, officials said. Overall the school district exceeded the state's scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, scores for each grade level.

"We did well," Conroe ISD Superintendent Don Stockton said. "We improved. We outperformed the state in every grade and subject area, which we're very proud of, and mirrored the state in different trends."

One of those trends was in third grade reading. The state's percentage dropped from 79 percent of students meeting STAAR standards in 2013 to 76 percent meeting standards in 2014, and Conroe dropped from 89 percent passing to 86 percent. Stockton said those lower numbers likely indicate there was something about the test that affected how the children performed.

Stockton said he feels there are several factors that contribute to CISD consistently performing so well in comparison to the state average.

"Strong instruction is No. 1, and just a strong emphasis on great instruction, trying to meet the needs of all the different types of learners that we have," Stockton said. "We also—in elementary school—have an early exit program where we get kids who are testing in Spanish to test in English as early as possible. We think that's a very important thing for kids to make the transition."

The only areas where the school district did not exceed the state's test results were among elementary school students who took the test in Spanish.

"We test a much smaller percentage of kids than the state does in Spanish, which indicates that most of the kids testing in Spanish are either new arrivals to us or students who've probably struggled to make the transition to English."

For example, at CISD, about 6 percent of students taking the third grade reading test took it in Spanish, as compared to 10 percent in the state. CISD had 58 percent proficiency on that test while the state had 65 percent.

At press time, the Texas Education Agency had not yet sent the district report card, which Stockton said he expected to receive in early August. That report gives a better indication of how the district measured up overall. The annual report evaluates different factors, including test scores, demographics and student achievement. CISD anticipated performing well compared to other districts statewide, Stockton said.

"Once the official results come out, then we compare to similar school districts to see how we do there," Stockton said.

District officials did not wait until they received the results to plan for the upcoming year, however.

CISD received the individual student scores along with the grade level preliminary results. Officials analyzed the results to try to determine what is working and what was not an effective method of teaching students.

"We're doing well in our school district," Stockton said. "Our scores are very healthy, but the challenge that we have is, any area that's not 100 percent—and obviously none of them are 100 percent—we're challenged in those areas for our students to be more successful."

Some of the steps the school district takes to help students improve include reading or math intervention and using a scientific approach to give individuals the best help possible.

"There's always good news/bad news when you get your scores," Stockton said. "The good news this year is, I think, overall we did very well, and the bad news is we still have some kids that are [struggling] with challenges."