ROYAL CITY - Royal High School was the runaway leader in basic skills testing last spring among members of the South Central 1A Athletic Conference.

The listing of the schools was compiled by Highland High School Principal Kelly Thorsen. He placed Royal at the head of three categories and second in the fourth.

"Our kids have bought into the fact they need to do better in school," Royal Principal Jack Hill said.

This listing was not by actual scoring. It was by percentage of improvement in scoring over the spring of 2010.

The testing is done in the 10th grade. Before graduation, all students are required to pass all four exams - reading, science, writing and math.

The exams can be re-taken in the 11th and 12th grades until all four are passed. The math exams are end-of-course, meaning they are taken only after students have taken specific courses, such as algebra or geometry.

The percentage of improvement in reading for 2011 Royal sophomores was 17.7 percent. River View was second at 6.5 percent, and Granger was third with 6.1 percent.

In science, Royal improved by 29.2 percent. Goldendale was second at 14.1 percent, and River View was third at 9.7 percent.

Royal scored its best improvement in math with a 36.8 percent jump. Connell was second at 25 percent, Highland third at 23.1, River View fourth at 22.8 and Kiona-Benton fifth at 22.5.

Wahluke's best showing was 3.4 percent improvement in math. It slipped 6.2 percent in reading, 4.6 percent in writing and 10.5 percent in science.

Royal did not fare as well in writing as the other three subject areas. Improvement was only 6.3 percent. River View topped the category at 9.8 percent.

All SCAC schools improved in Math. The biggest struggle was in writing, where six schools slipped backward and one stayed the same. There are 13 schools in the SCAC.