Third through eighth graders in Parishville-Hopkinton, Canton and Potsdam schools seem to have fared the best in St. Lawrence County in last spring’s English and math Common Core tests.

Elsewhere in the county, students in the Brasher Falls, Massena and Ogdensburg school districts did better than others in districts along the St. Lawrence River and vicinity.

The results of those tests have been released by the state Education Department.

Only one in three students statewide received “acceptable” scores on the Common Core tests, as determined by the standards maintained by the SED.

Students at Parishville-Hopkinton Central averaged 45.8 percent proficient for the 12 tests – English and math for the six grades taking it; Canton Central students averaged 45.1; and Potsdam Central students averaged 44.3, all well above the one-in-three state average.

Brasher Falls schools, also knows as St. Lawrence Central, had a 35 percent proficient score, Massena about 39.5, and Ogdensburg students, 27 percent.

Also scoring above the “one-in-three” state average was Colton-Pierrepont Central, at 34 percent.

People may check the results of their school district by using the databases at http://data.nysed.gov/ or http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2015/08/12/heres-a-database-of-grade-3-8-test-results-for-450.html.

The State Education Department says that, overall, students have made incremental progress in ELA and math since 2013, the first year assessments aligned to the more rigorous learning standards were administered in grades 3-8.

Meanwhile New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), one of the major teachers’ unions in the state, says the scores are nearly meaningless.

“It would be a huge mistake to read anything into these test results. Whether they’re up or down, they tell us virtually nothing meaningful about students or their teachers,” said NYSUT President Karen E. Magee.

“Student test scores based on poorly written, developmentally inappropriate Pearson tests, in a year in which record numbers of parents repudiated the state’s standardized testing program by ‘opting out,’ aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.”

Statewide, in the English (“English language arts”) test, the percentage of all test takers in grades 3-8 who scored at the proficient level remained consistent in 2015 at 31.3 compared to 30.6 in 2014 and 31.1 in 2013, according to SED. In math, the percentage of all test takers in grades 3-8 who scored at the proficient level increased by seven points in two years to 38.1 in 2015 from 36.2 in 2014 and 31.1 in 2013.