Grand Meadow High School freshmen are setting the pace when it comes to state comprehensive assessments.

District officials announced this week all 20 freshmen made Adequate Yearly Progress on the writing portion of this year’s MCA exams.

“We’re extremely pleased with our freshman class,” said Paul Basel, Grand Meadow High School Principal.

The district and students received their writing scores earlier this month, according to staff. MCA statewide data is not publicly released until the fall.

The news comes at a good time for Rich Lantz, secondary business and English teacher. Lantz worked with students all year to make them “prepared and confident” to take the exam.

“The important thing is they put the pen on the paper and wrote,” Lantz said.

Lantz had students practice writing several timed essays throughout the year. He would set time limits for certain writing exercises, whether it be creating a thesis or writing out an essay outline. By doing that, students figure out how long it takes them to complete all the necessary parts of an essay.

That may have paid off for students, as Lantz said they told him they felt prepared for the MCAs this year.

“I guess the test results showed that,” he said.