Twelve-year-old Yousif Ahmed, right, a sixth-grader at Longley Elementary School in Lewiston, tutors Dustin Child, 9, center, in reading last August during summer school. At left is Muktar Ali, 12, another volunteer student tutor. Lewiston educators said Monday that test data shows summer school paid off in preventing students from losing what they’d learned during the school year.

LEWISTON — Preliminary test data shows summer classes at Longley Elementary School last year helped students lose less of what they learned during the school year, according to a report to the School Department on Monday night.

When students began school this fall, 50.3 percent of Longley students either maintained or improved their reading skills, compared with only 35 percent the year before.

Last summer, Longley Elementary offered a new, six-week program to help students keep reading during July and August.

Principal Linda St. Andre said she was excited with the 15 percent jump of students maintaining skills. “The data clearly shows that students regressed less in reading, and that was our focus,” she said. “The numbers are pointing to the fact that summer school is a good experience for our students.”

Schools Superintendent Bill Webster said test data showed 50.7 percent of students in other Lewiston elementary schools either maintained or improved their reading skills, and those schools did not have the six-week summer program that Longley had.

“It’s only with tremendous intervention we achieved a level of retention similar to what we see in the other schools,” Webster said. That means Longley’s summer program “is not only desirable, but really necessary for those students to have a chance of maintaining the same level we see in other schools.”

Longley has long had a student population from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Maine, and in recent years the school has a high number of students learning to speak English. Without the summer program many students would go the summer not speaking English or doing little if any reading, educators said.

The jump in the percentage of students maintaining skills was achieved despite the fact that only about a third of Longley’s population attended summer school regularly, St. Andre said.

Next year, she hopes to grow the program, which is open to all Longley students, both in the number of students who attend and the kinds of lessons offered. Math and reading will be taught, as will different kinds of teaching and more field trips for learning.

Last summer there was a field trip each week, “and they loved that,” St. Andre said. “We need to put a little bit of that in each day.”

The summer program also involved older students tutoring younger ones, which resulted in improvements that can’t be measured by test data, she said.

“The numbers only tell part of the story. What I’m seeing is a change in students, especially the ones who were the tutors,” she said. Those students are taking school more seriously and have more confidence. Because they were a teacher for the summer, “they believe they can do something important,” St. Andre said. “They have higher aspirations.”

In other business, the committee heard a report about a new program to improve behavior in all schools. It says students must act in a manner that is safe, respectful and responsible, and teaches them what that means. The program also rewards students showing good behavior, said Jennifer Snow, the program coach for Lewiston schools.

Generally about 80 percent of students respond to expectations, while 10 to 15 percent need more intervention, and about 5 to 10 percent need individualized help with behavior, Snow said.

Schools are already seeing improved student behavior, which means teachers and administrators are spending less time disciplining, students are spending more time learning.

For instance, at the high school there’s been almost a 50 percent reduction for the need to discipline this September compared to September 2011, Snow said.

Collectively, there’s been a reduction of 193 students sent to the office and 15 fewer suspensions. Compared to last September, that saved 35 hours, or four days, that administrators spent on discipline, she said.

Lewiston schools are not at a point where less discipline problems will translate into better student test scores, Snow said, “but we’re definitely on our way.”