As a boy, Richard C. Atkinson would freeze up whenever he had to sit down and write. Then he went off to Boy Scout camp, where counselors did not allow him to eat lunch until he had composed a letter to his parents. That routine taught him how to put his thoughts on paper quickly, he says.
Many years later, as president of the University of California system, Mr. Atkinson helped persuade the College Board to add a writing section to the SAT. He predicted that putting the new 25-minute essay on the test would improve writing instruction in American high schools.
Has it?
Like the SAT essay prompt, the question sparks varied responses.
“It’s a mixed bag,” says Amy McCracken, chairwoman of the English department at Manassas Park High School, in Virginia.
“On the one hand,” she says, “the essay’s good because it forces kids to think on their feet.”
But preparing students for both the SAT and state writing exams requires her to devote more class time to formulaic writing practices, which comes at a cost. “You have to sacrifice other things,” Ms. McCracken says. “You lose that creative aspect. A lot of my students want to write poetry, short stories, and plays. But you can’t teach creativity with these essays.”
College Board officials caution that its essay — scored by two readers on a scale of 1 to 6 — cannot capture a student’s inner Shakespeare, just whether he or she can whip up a coherent, well-organized argument while obeying the laws of grammar.
That’s exactly what many college students must do during in-class essay exams. The difference is that the timed essays in college courses demand that students reveal what they know about specific subjects (i.e., facts); the SAT essay does not.
Deborah Shepard, a veteran English teacher at Lincoln High School, in Tallahassee, Fla., says the test has not really changed how (or how often) she teaches writing, mainly because Florida students have long had to practice for the 45-minute essay required on a state exam. But she praises the test for giving her another standard by which to evaluate her students — and herself.
“I’m a big believer in accountability, and I think we need something that measures us,” Ms. Shepard says. “It’s given me some direction, something more external and more clear-cut than the other kinds of grading English teachers do.”
Carol Jago, an English teacher at Santa Monica High School, in California, thinks the college-admissions test provides much more of a carrot for students than state exams do. “Students are acutely aware of having to write well on the SAT,” she says. “I see students actually practicing, writing essays on their own time, and coming up to me, asking, ‘Do you think this is good enough for the SAT?’ Be still my heart!”
Ms. Jago says that while the new essay has not prompted her to start running writing drills in her classes, she does try to mimic the construction of SAT prompts in her in-class assignments.
‘It’s Got to Evolve’
Some instructors report that the SAT essay has inspired more of their students to read newspapers because they perceive that knowledge of current events will help them craft better answers. Others say they are puzzled that some of their strongest writers have received low scores on the essay.
Then there’s Peter Neely, director of college counseling at the Thayer Academy, in Braintree, Mass. Mr. Neely, who has taught English for 35 years, gives the SAT essay an F. “The College Board is deluding itself,” Mr. Neely says. “They may think the test is going to revolutionize writing instruction, but what it’s really done is march us steadfastly back to the 1950s, when people had to crank out essays in rhetoric classes.”
Mr. Neely says the essay did not lead him to change his approach to teaching in any way. And he believes the essay will not affect many high schools unless more colleges say they will use it in admissions.
Henry Broaddus, dean of admission at the College of William and Mary, agrees. “Given the expectations families have of secondary schools,” Mr. Broaddus says, “high schools may be waiting for a cue from colleges.”
Mr. Broaddus, like many deans, is waiting to determine whether his staff should consider the essays at all. Other colleges, including William and Mary’s in-state rival, the University of Virginia, have said they already use the timed writing samples in their evaluations of applicants.
The College Board expects more colleges to embrace the essay as they get more data. The association plans to begin research next winter that would determine the impact of the SAT writing section on high-school instruction.
Meanwhile, Richard Sterling, executive director of the National Writing Project, is trying to persuade the College Board to increase the essay’s length from 25 to 45 minutes. Mr. Sterling, who has advised the College Board on writing issues, believes a longer sample would inspire better teaching in high school and make the essay more meaningful to colleges.
“The SAT essay is a good step forward,” he says, “but it’s got to evolve, it’s got to be longer, if it is to realize its potential. A 25-minute essay is too tempting to reduce to a formula.”
One catch: the SAT essay is already ensnared in a debate about the overall length of the new SAT, which recently grew by 45 minutes. Giving students more time to write would drag out a test that many students and college counselors believe is already too taxing.
Some educators have even called for the essay’s removal, an idea Mr. Sterling strongly opposes. “The absence of any writing on SAT,” he says, “would send a bad message.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Students Volume 52, Issue 43, Page A27