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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1976)
New placement test checks writing skills of students By LORA CUYKENDALL Oi the Emerald As part of a continuing program to upgrade the writing ability of students, the University will begin using a new writing skills placement test next fall, according to Nathaniel Teich, University composition director. Teich says the new placement exam, called the Test of Standard Written English, will be used to determine if incoming freshmen will be placed in Writing 121 or if they will first be required to take the remedial course. Writing 120. In past years, the University has based that deci sion on the score a student receives on the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Re cently, some critics have charged that the SAT leans too heavily on vocabulary and spelling knowledge and is not an accurate measure of writing skill. The new test stresses grammar, usage and mechanics, according to Teich. "We found that the SAT verbal scores were gener ally inaccurate in determining which writing course a student should take," says Teich. "About one-third of the people trapped into Writing 120 were competent to take 121 — and about 15 per cent of the students in 121 should have been in 120." Teich says he hopes the new exam will give a more accurate reflec tion of a student's writing ability. Developed by the makers of the SAT, the writing skills test will be given as part of that standard college entrance exam The verbal section of the SAT has been shortened by 20 minutes in order to add the new test, and a student's score on the writing skills portion will be kept separate from his other test scores. A student taking the SAT now win have a score for math, verbal and writing skills. Teich says the writing test was given this fall and winter to about 400 freshmen who had already been assigned either to Wnting 120 or 121 on the basis of their SAT verbal scores. Based on statistics gathered from the experimental test, Teich estimates that next year 12 to 13 per cent of the incoming freshmen will be placed in Writing 120, as opposed to the 16 per cent in the course this year. A cut-off score of 370 on the verbal section of the SAT is currently used to determine placement in Writing 120. The cut-off score with the new test has been set at 35. “Of course,the cut-off point we selected was based on a number of factors, including economic and administrative needs as well as educational goals,” says Teich. "We may want to raise that cut off point to 40, but since this is still in the experimental stage, we want to be conservative at first." Use of the new test, Teich believes, will allow the University to trim four or five classes from the 20 to 25 sections of Writing 120 it now offers. Teich says about 62 per cent of this year's fresh men have already taken the exam. By next year, its inclusion in the SAT win insure that most incoming freshmen will have taken the writing skills test. The change to the new test is one of the recom mendations an ad hoc Committee on Competencies in English Composition will be making to the State Board of Higher Education and the Community Col lege Coordinating Council in a report early next month. The committee was set up two years ago to study ways to combat the declining writing skills of the state's college students. Teich, a member of the ad hoc committee, says other proposals in the report have already been insti tuted at the University. The school's decision to give both required writing courses at the 100 level (rather than requiring a term of Writing 121 and Writing 323) grew out of the committee’s study Other recommendations the committee will make include a proposal to develop a coordinated state wide program of writing instruction, which would in volve elementary and secondary schools as well as community colleges and universities. He said the committee will stress in its report the need to estab lish closer communication among the various educa tional institutions in the state. SONNET Priced from $200.00 Convenient Credit Terms Magnificent styling, perfect quality and lasting value make Keepsake the finest Registered Diamond Rings Fine watches, Jewelry and gifts OcmA Jewelers kccpvike Comer Valley River Center odcodeodeodeodei 1 n* K~~*| YOUR personal copy of the Oregon Daily Emerald is waiting for you at Erb Memorial Union University Bookstore South Entrance PLC Music School Education Building West entrance Main Library 13th St. entrance Gilbert Hall South entrance Law School 177 Lawrence Outside Science Library Dormitory Dining Rooms S.E. entrance Oregon Hall Health Center Emerald Hall 150 Science S.W. entrance Allen Hall Mac Court Department Offices If you want us to leave it somewhere else call 686-3714. sM r BUa MASK HOUSE PUNT *137 7 !.*» ATTRACTIVt MASS ATOMIZER *169 *•« 2.25 / 3.7 01 PIKRI TIM KEIIASE PUNT /-Pmum-\ FUSTIC PLANT 166J K HOUSE PUNT BRACKETS ^ *2" 22J
