Writing added to tests for college-bound

America's colleges aren't giving students a pass when it comes to writing skills, some educators say, but those abilities could be put to the test when college entrance exams begin including writing assessments next year.

The ACT, formerly American College Testing and the most widely used college entrance exam, will begin offering an optional writing test in February 2005. The SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, will begin offering a writing test in March that will be a mandatory part of that college-entrance exam.

But is there a need to better test college students' writing skills?

The College Board, which administers the SAT tests, insists it's needed and that mandatory testing will prompt students to be better writers.

A 2003 report by a national commission says poor writing skills are found at all levels of education, from elementary school to college.

But many of the schools that rely on the ACT exams, including Southeast Missouri State University, don't see a need for a new college-entrance writing test.

Only 17 percent of some 2,000 four-year colleges and universities have told ACT officials that they plan to require applicants to their schools to submit writing test scores beginning in fall 2006.

Southeast admissions director Debbie Below said the Cape Girardeau school already has its own writing assessment program and Southeast won't make prospective students spend additional money to take another ACT exam.

The fee for the expanded ACT college-entrance exam will be $42, compared to $28 for the ACT assessment without the writing test.

The fee for the revised SAT will be $41.50. The College Board, which operates the testing service, said the cost of the test would be at least $10 higher than the old exam fee.

Despite the new emphasis on writing, a spokesman for the Iowa City, Iowa-based ACT says skill with words is not the biggest failing of incoming college freshmen.

"Science and math are the problems," said Ken Gullette of ACT.

A study of ACT scores shows that 68 percent of test-takers nationwide who graduated from high school this spring already have the academic skills to earn a C or higher in college freshman English classes.

In contrast, only 40 percent of them are academically prepared to earn a C or higher in algebra, and only 26 percent are prepared to earn a C or higher in college biology, Gullette said.

The ACT and the SAT organizations decided to offer writing tests at the urging of California's large public college system.

Beth Brunkhorst, a guidance counselor at Cape Girardeau Central High School, predicts few area high school graduates will take the ACT writing test as long as colleges in the region aren't requiring such a test.

Traditionally, schools in California, Florida, Texas and Ivy League schools on the East Coast prefer students take the SAT exam. But Midwest colleges prefer the ACT, said Pat Bratton, Jackson High School guidance counselor.

Even so, some Central students say they will take both the ACT and SAT writing tests as they look at applying for admission to colleges.

"I really want to go to an East Coast school," said junior Malcolm Boyce.

Central junior Angelina Guidos said writing is one of her strong suits. She hopes to score well on both writing tests and hopefully land a scholarship for literary studies.

Taking both the SAT and ACT could give her more college choices, she said.

While she welcomes the writing test, Guidos said some of her classmates are rushing to take the SAT in the coming months before the writing test is added.

So do high school graduates have sufficient writing skills to succeed in college? Brunkhorst thinks so.

"Most of our students are very successful in their writing skills and in their English courses," she said.

At Central, students have to complete a research paper in their junior year, Brunkhorst said.

Jackson High School also requires its students to complete a research paper.

"Our graduates who go to Southeast Missouri State fair very well," Bratton said.

Bratton said some colleges like Southeast require new students to take a writing test to determine what freshman English course students must take. Others determine course placement on the basis of the ACT score on the English part of the exam.

While the current English exam doesn't require students to write essays, the exam has questions that demonstrate students' knowledge of English composition, Bratton said.

Dave Reinheimer, associate professor of English and director of the writing assessment program at Southeast, said the university has tested students on their writing skills since 1986.

Students who are admitted to the school have to write an essay in 50 minutes that determines whether they will be placed in a first-year English composition class or, in the case of those with poor writing skills, a more basic writing skills course.

"About 30 percent of students are placed in the developmental course," Reinheimer said.

At the end of their second semester, Southeast students are given a second writing exam. They have to write two essays in a test that is administered on a Saturday and takes 2 to 2 1/2 hours to complete. That test is designed to give students an indication of their writing skills in advance of the final writing test.

Students in their junior or senior year have to pass a third writing test before they can graduate. Like the second test, it involves two essays that students must write during a 2 1/2-hour exam.

Few students fail the test, Reinheimer said. He said 90 percent of Southeast students are proficient writers by the time they reach their junior or senior year.

The tests are scored by Reinheimer and his staff of four part-time employees.

Those that do fail can take the test again -- once every semester until they pass, or they can submit a portfolio of several essays they have written in their classes in lieu of retaking the writing test.

Nick Watts, who graduated from Southeast in December 2001 with a philosophy degree and is now a graduate student in English, said students should be able to pass the writing test.

"It's fairly easy," he said. "It's basically a personal narrative."

Watts said students today are more used to writing e-mail letters than composing essays. "But at least they are starting to write," said Watts, who teaches English composition.

Jon Thrower, who also teaches English composition as a graduate student, said some Southeast students do have difficulty crafting a sentence. Sometimes students leave out verbs or subjects and resort to sentence fragments in their essays, he said.

Reinheimer said 400 to 450 students out of 1,600 to 1,800 new students tested at the start of a school year are found to have problems writing essays. That doesn't surprise him.

"There are always going to be people who don't write very well," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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