In the spring of 1992, all students in the elementary schools and middle schools of the Cherry Creek Schools (Colorado) participated in Read-On Write-On (ROWO). A random sample of 20 percent of the 3,542 papers from grades 1-8) from each school was collected and sent to the Assessment and Evaluation Office for scoring. Each paper (above grade 1) was scored by two readers on six traits representing: (1) ideas and content; (2) organization; (3) voice; (4) word choice; (5) sentence structure; and (6) writing conventions. Students through grade 3 were found to be below the developmental stage of writing, where weaknesses outweighed strengths. In grades 4 through 8, students were writing at the developmental stage, characterized by an equal balance of strengths and weaknesses. Female students scored higher than did male students at all grade levels. No clear pattern emerged by ethnic groups, although White and Asian American students outscored Black and Hispanic American students in grades 3 through 6. Students in all grades improved their scores from the fall test to the spring. Correlation with student scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills writing conventions and language total scores indicates that the writing test measures a similar construct. Six tables and 16 graphs present test results. Five appendixes described the assessment process, and appendixes B through E provide nine pages of additional tables. (SLD)