Brenda Young has used card games, music -- whatever worked -- to teach her third-grade students at Enota Elementary School their multiplication facts. And now she and other teachers and administrators are trumpeting the results of a recently completed series of timed, 100-question multiplication tests given to Gainesville City Schools students in third, fourth and fifth grades.

The most dramatic improvement systemwide involved third-graders, who on average went from getting seven correct answers on a test given Aug. 13 (just a few days after the start of the school year) to 74 correct answers on the Dec. 18 test, the final assessment.

Enota had the biggest jump among third-graders: from 8 to 87.

"I am beside myself with excitement," Young said. "We tried everything we could think of to be innovative and to get them going, to rally the team."

Schools typically haven't taught multiplication until the second half of third grade, so administrators weren't especially shocked at the low initial scores of third-graders.

However, "We now have been teaching the concepts for three months to second-graders," said Mike Bull, the school system's assistant superintendent for instruction.

The multiplication test is part of a new series of tests, "Pachyderm Assessments," that Bull introduced in his first year with the school system. The assessments are intended to gauge students' academic progress through the year.

Bull said he was pleased with the overall results of the multiplication test and believes they have had a "ripple effect" into other areas of school life.

"The kids are feeling better about themselves and their academics," he said. "There's a little competition (among) the schools, but I think it's healthy."

The original plan called for administering four tests between Aug. 13 and Dec. 18, with a goal of third-graders getting an average of 75-80 correct answers; fourth-graders, 85; and fifth-graders, 90-95.

Fourth- and fifth-graders often more than met the goals. Many fifth-graders nearly nailed perfect scores.

Third-graders fell a bit shy of the goal, "so schools will be administering the test (to that group) on a monthly basis to get the levels up to 75 percent," Bull said.

In the Aug. 13 test, Fair Street Elementary third-graders scored fairly even with other third-graders in the system. But they showed little improvement between the Sept. 30 and Dec. 18 tests, ending up with an average of just 49 correct answers.

Principal Merrianne Dyer said the school is studying why those students didn't perform well.

She noted that 44 percent of those students have been in the United States two years or less, the highest number of U.S. newcomers among any grade level at the school.

Fair Street also is looking at schools that have had success. "We want to use the (good) ideas that anyone has," she said.

Bull said he has been impressed by Fair Street's response.

"It's very proactive on their part to recognize a problem, then do something to correct it," he said.

Sally Meadors, principal at Enota, said she believes that learning the multiplication facts is key to future success in math.

"It is beneficial when (students) do long division and fractions," she said. "If children know the facts, they can go much faster through those next units of instruction."