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Roseville – The Minnesota Department of Education today announced that nearly 90 percent of Minnesota 9th-graders passed the Writing Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma (GRAD).

“We are pleased that Minnesota students have performed so well on the Writing GRAD,” Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said. “We hope this assessment provides educators with a starting point for improving every student’s writing skills.”

The Writing GRAD assessment is designed to measure whether or not a student has attained basic writing skills before graduation. Those skills include the ability to formulate and communicate a written message in English to an adult reader. Taking into account several factors, including composition, style, sentence formation, grammar, and mechanics and spelling, the assessments are graded as passing or not passing.

The Writing GRAD assessment consists of a student responding in written form to a prompt. The prompt on this year’s assessment was: Think of a time you did something to help someone else. Explain why you chose to help and how the experience made you feel. Include details so that your reader will understand your actions and feelings. This is the second year that Minnesota 9th-graders took the Writing GRAD assessment, which replaced the writing Basic Skills Test (BST) beginning in 2007. The Writing GRAD uses the same administration and scoring procedures as the BST did during its tenure.

Students who do not pass the Writing GRAD assessment will have opportunities to retest during statewide testing windows. Please contact Christine Dufour at 651-582-8720 or visit www.education.state.mn.us for school and district level results.

2007 and 2008 GRAD Writing Results

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http://www.education.state.mn.us/mdeprod/groups/Communications/documents/Announcement/034421.pdf

 2008 GRAD Writing Results   Minnesota Department of Education (Excel)

 June 17, 2008 - Nearly 90 percent of 9th graders pass writing test - State education officials say nearly 90 percent of this year's 9th graders passed a writing exam required for high school graduation. St. Paul, Minn. — This was the second year 9th grade students took the test known as the Writing Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma. This year's passing rate of 89.5 percent was a slight decrease from 90.8 percent in 2007, Minnesota Public Radio.