This year, the Davis school district has decided to give a writing test to both sophomores and freshman to see how well our students improve in writing. The Davis school district is the only district in the state to choose this format, this year. The writing test used to be a part of the sage testing, and was for many years, until they decided to switch.

The same people that run the ACT, run this writing test. Now that there is a mandatory writing section in the ACT the school decided to use their format to help students, hoping it will help them prepare for the written ACT test later.

The ACT version is hand written, but this written test, like the old sage test, is on the computer. The test is either an argumentative essay or an informative one. Each student is given the same passage, and with the information given they will either choose a side or produce information from what is given. This essay is designed to be a 3-6 paragraph essay, depending on the format.

These tests are being taken during the English class of each students, so as to not disturb the schedule of the school like The ACT does. Some of last week and part of this week are when it is being taken, so as all of the students finish it up, the school will learn how well their kids are learning, hoping that one year of English will make it better. I am pretty sure that it will, but you never know.