The Minnesota Department of Education announced today that nearly 90 percent of Minnesota ninth-graders pass the Writing Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma.

“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.”

All four local school districts scored above the state average of 89.5 percent.

Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City High School led the way with 62 of 64 ninth-graders passing, a total percentage of 96.88 percent. Litchfield High School had 132 of its 137 freshmen pass - 96.35 percent. Dassel-Cokato had a pass rate of 95.6 percent and Eden Valley-Watkins' rate was 93.67 percent.

In its second year as a replacement to the writing Basic Skills Test, the Writing Grad assessment is designed to measure whether a student has attained adequate writing skills before graduation. The test focuses on composition, style, sentence formation, grammar, mechanics and spelling. The tests are graded as passing or not passing.

Read more, as well as reaction from local school administrators, in the June 19 Independent Review.