This report contains information on the 1980 Basic Skills Assessment Writing Sample that the New Mexico State Department of Education administered to over 1,000 tenth grade students. Sections of the report provide the following information: (1) background data and an explanation of holistic scoring, which was used in the assessment; (2) illustrations of student performance on the four writing tasks (an application form, a business letter, an abbreviated message/announcement, and a reminiscence essay), including both well-written and poorly written student work to explain scorers' ratings; (3) a note on making pass/fail decisions after the writing samples had been rated; and (4) the implications of student writing performance for teaching that resulted from the assessment. Appendixes contain a discussion of the organization/procedures of the scoring process, and a summary of statistical data from the 1980 assessment. (RL)