Students at Buffalo High School outperformed Minnesota on graduation tests that were administered this spring.  85% of BHS sophomores met the state's reading requirement on their first attempt by earning a proficient score on MCA-II or by earning a passing score on the GRAD (Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma).  This represents a 2% increase over last year's results.  Overall, 78% of Minnesota students meeting the state's reading graduation requirement on their first attempt.  The GRAD reading test is embedded into the MCA-II.

Eleventh graders participated in the first administration of the state's new math graduation requirement.  62% of BHS juniors students met the state's new more rigorous math requirement on the first attempt by earning a proficient score on MCA-II or by earning a passing score on the GRAD.  This represents a 2% increase from 2009.  BHS students exceeded the Minnesota average of 58%. 

The performance by BHS freshmen was also impressive with 95% passing the GRAD writing assessment administered at ninth grade.  Results are substantially higher than 90% of Minnesota 9th-graders met the writing graduation requirement by passing the Writing GRAD.  The Writing GRAD assessment, which is not embedded into an MCA-II, 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. 

Graduation requirements are designed to ensure that students have the needed academic skills and knowledge before they graduate.  Students must meet the math, reading and writing graduation requirements in order to graduate.  Students who do not pass a GRAD assessment will have opportunities to retest during statewide testing windows.  Schools provide remediation to those students prior to taking the GRAD retests. However, under legislation passed this session, for the next five years, students in 11th-grade who do not meet the math graduation requirement can still graduate if they:

• Complete all coursework and credits required for graduation
• Participate in district-prescribed academic remediation in math
• Participate in at least two retests of the math GRAD exam or pass the math GRAD exam, whichever happens first.