Because of the high standards set for school performance, the annual report Minnesota Department of Education released Wednesday can give the impression schools in Minnesota are in dire straits.

To set the record straight: The kids are all right.

If one school fails to meet a goal in just one category, the whole school and the school district is classified as below performance. That&8217;s a good standard to have. It also means bigger schools will face greater challenges, too.

But keep in mind all local schools passed when it came to standards set for the student bodies as a whole. And most schools passed with flying colors.

The report online is simple to read. It gives a Yes in green for passing and No in red for failing.

Then it gives categories of &8220;All Students,&8221; &8220;American Indian/Alaskan Native,&8221; &8220;Asian/Pacific Islander,&8221; &8220;Hispanic,&8221; &8220;Black,&8221; &8220;White,&8221; &8220;Limited English Proficient,&8221; &8220;Special Education&8221; and &8220;Free/Reduced Price Lunch.&8221; Categories &8212; ones that apply, that is &8212; are judged in reading participation and proficiency, mathematics participation and proficiency. For elementary and middle schools it measured attendance rate and for high schools it measured graduation rate.

Let&8217;s look at Albert Lea High School for an example.

The categories the report applies are &8220;All Students,&8221; &8220;Hispanic,&8221; &8220;White,&8221; &8220;Special Education&8221; and &8220;Free/Reduced Price Lunch.&8221; There are Asians and blacks at Albert Lea High School but not enough to be classified as a category on the report.

(If you want to know, the high school student body breaks down as 88 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian and 1 percent black.)

For the category of &8220;All Students,&8221; Albert Lea High received a Yes in the four categories and a Yes for graduation rate.

For &8220;Hispanics,&8221; the report measured reading proficiency, and the school earned a Yes. &8220;White&8221; received a Yes in the four categories. &8220;Special Education&8221; was judged on three categories &8212; reading participation and proficiency and mathematics participation &8212; and it received a No for reading proficiency.

For &8220;Free/Reduced Price Lunch&8221; &8212; by the way, lunches are how the government tallies schoolchildren from low-income families &8212; the school earned Yes for the first three categories and a No in mathematics proficiency.

To be sure, some schools in Minnesota do face problems and received No&8217;s in many categories, but most did fairly well. Our local schools are looking good. Two local districts &8212; Glenville-Emmons and Alden-Conger &8212; passed with a Yes in each category measured. The other area districts came close.

In the categories where schools failed, the districts will develop two-year plans to improve those areas. They also must set aside 10 percent of Title I funds for professional development related to those areas. Schools can even apply for grants to assist them in their improvement plans.