By Jolene Farley
Twenty Hills-Beaver Creek 10th-grade students all passed the written composition portion of the Basic Standards Tests administered in January, while statewide 90.74 percent of students passed.
"We're really pleased at the way the kids performed on the test," said Dan Ellingson, district test coordinator.
"There's a lot of preparation, with any of these tests there's a lot of preparation," he said.
"We practice it and that's the way the English teachers grade. Then it's just a matter of keeping up with it that way."
In one other case, all Hills-Beaver Creek students passed, the first time around, the math portion of the Basic Standards Test, according to Ellingson.
Results on the writing Basic Standard Test are based on the overall quality of students' compositions.
The scoring is based on the clarity of the central idea, a coherent focus, organization and support for ideas as well as spelling, grammar punctuation and other language skills.
Trained professionals evaluate all compositions. A passing paper is well organized and must have only minor mechanical and spelling errors.
This is the fourth year that 10th-grade students in Minnesota have taken the written composition Basic Standards Test.
Minnesota public school students must pass this test, along with the reading and mathematics test, in order to meet state graduation requirements.