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Moffat County School District officials were off on their estimates for 2005-06 enrollment, but not by much.

Enrollment numbers presented at Thursday's Board of Education meeting show 2,386.5 students enrolled, 98 more than anticipated.

What that means is revenues from state per pupil funding could be $267,090 over projections.

That revenue is generally offset, though, by the additional students to be educated.

District officials aren't counting dollars yet. State per-pupil funding is based on the number of students enrolled in the district Oct. 1 -- and several administrators reported their numbers were changing daily.

Moffat County administrators across the board reported Thursday that the first week of school was a success.

Whether dealing with kindergarteners or juniors, building principals have set similar goals -- increase student achievement.

Each school is in various states of progress on defining essential learnings -- what students should know at each grade level. Once those are established, educators will develop a common way to assess that each student -- no matter who their teacher or what their school -- knows what educators have deemed essential.

At the preschool level, Assistant Superintendent Joel Sheridan said, improving attendance is a goal that will contribute to better performance.

Diana Cook, principal at East Elementary School, said one goal is to refine math goals, work on interventions for students who test poorly and to implement a positive behavior support system -- something several other schools also are starting this year.

The system focuses more on rewards for good behavior than punishments for bad behavior.

Helping schools define their goals were results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program test, released earlier this month.

In a report also made during Thursday's meeting, Sheridan reviewed results with board members.

The results indicate cause for celebration and reasons to be concerned.

Districtwide unsatisfactory scores have declined for a four-year period, and only two percent of third-graders' reading and math scores were high.

The district's writing scores were the lowest in relation to the state average, but they show the best increase over time of all the subject levels tested.

Of particular note to board members was that students individual scores tend to increase until they hit the 10th grade, when they fall -- as in the case of math, sometimes substantially. This year, 96 percent of tenth-graders scored unsatisfactory or partially proficient in math.

Sheridan reported that 10th-graders across the nation scored the lowest in math.

He attributes that in part to the fact that there's no uniformity in what types of math classes high school students are required to take. Forty percent of the 10th-grade math test is geometry, yet if a student has elected to take consumer math first -- or even instead -- they're at a disadvantage.

"If you're not taking geometry, you might as well be a French student taking a Spanish test," he said.

He thinks similar issues will arise when the state begins testing for fifth-grade and tenth-grade science.

Until officials are able to break down the numbers and evaluate the process of each student, it's difficult to determine why the numbers are what they are, Sheridan said.

"You can have several hypothesis and no conclusion," he said.

The initial goal is to meet the state averages in every category, Sheridan said. That's just a benchmark to the goal if having 80 percent of traditional students score in the 80th percentile.