One year after Sippican School dropped from a Level 1 to a Level 2 school, student MCAS scores have pushed it back into the top tier.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Elise Frangos said an official with the state’s department of education told her the quick turnaround was “rare.”

A state assessment assigns schools levels of performance with Level 1 schools named as high performers. The Level 2 designation placed some restrictions on how administrators spend school funds.

Principal Lyn Rivet credited staff and students at the School Committee’s Nov. 6 meeting for the change.

“Congratulations to staff, students and parents for an outstanding effort,” Rivet said.

Along with Assistant Principal Sarah Goerges, Rivet presented committee members with grade-by-grade MCAS results from last spring.

Students beat state averages in certain mathematics, English language arts and science categories by 20 percentage points or more in some cases.

Math scores in particular were a bright spot.

“In the last two years there is a strong trajectory going upwards as teachers are getting more and more comfortable with the Every Day Math Program,” Rivet said. The program is new comprehensive approach to teaching math.

English was also a strong point for students.

According to a ranking system developed by the Boston Globe, third grade students ranked 16 out of 955 schools in English language arts. The ranking isn’t statewide, but compares schools with similar finances and demographics.

While the students maintained high scores in many cases, fourth grade reading and writing was a cause for concern.

“Fourth grade has been a chronic issue for us for ten years,” said School Committee member Christine Winters.

Frangos chalked the scores up to “implementation lag.” Recently, new standards placed more emphasis on writing, often in areas where students don’t expect it such as physical education classes and science.

Students are catching up though, Frangos said.

Other score highlights include: Fifth grade English language arts scores in the proficient and advanced categories jumped from 80 percent to 92 percent over last year; advanced scores went from 39 percent to 43 percent for fifth grade science; and fifth grade students improved from a 14 percent to 27 percent in the English language arts advanced category.