<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><i>The Boston Globe</i></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">Saturday, September 15, 2012</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">The Nation</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><b>Most students <u>not</u> proficient in writing</b>, test finds</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">2011 results are first for students using computers</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">by Christine Armario, Associated Press</font></span></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Just a quarter </b>of eighth and 12th grade students in the United States have solid writing skills, even when allowed to use spell-check and other computer word-processing tools, according to results of a national exam [NAEP} released Friday.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Twenty-seven percent of students at each grade level were able to write essays that were well-developed, organized, and had proper language and grammar—<b>3 percent</b> were advanced and 24 percent were proficient. The remainder showed just <b>partial</b> mastery of these skills.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>“It is important to remember this is first draft writing,” said Cornelia Orr, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which administers the Nation’s Report Card tests. “They did have some time to edit, but it wasn’t extensive editing.”</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Students who took the writing test in 2011 had an advantage that previous test takers did not: a computer with spell-check and thesaurus. Previously, students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress writing test had to use pencil and paper, but with changes in technology, and the need to write across electronic formats, the decision was made to switch to computers.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Orr said students use technology and tools like spell-check on a daily basis. “It’s as if we had given them a pencil to write the essay and took away the eraser,” she said. </font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>She said word processing tools alone wouldn’t result in significantly better writing scores <b>if students didn’t have the</b> <b>core skills</b> of being able to organize ideas and present them in a clear and grammatical fashion.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Still, students in both grades who used the thesaurus and the backspace more frequently had higher scores than those who used them less often. Students in the 12th grade who had to write four or five pages a week for <b>English</b> homework also had higher scores.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Because this was the first version of the computerized test, the board cautioned against comparing the results to previous exams. In 2007, 33 percent of eighth grade students scored at the proficient level, which represents solid writing skills, as did 24 percent at grade 12.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>The results at both grade levels showed a continued achievement gap between white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>There was also a gender gap, with girls scoring 20 points higher on average than boys in the eighth grade and 14 points higher in 12th grade. Those who qualified for free and reduced price lunch, a key indicator of poverty, also had lower scores than those who did not; there was a 27 point difference between the two at the eighth grade.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>For the 2011 exam, laptops were brought into public and private schools across the country and more than 50,000 students were tested to get a nationally representative sample. Students were given <b>prompts</b> that required them to write essays that explained, persuaded, or conveyed an experience.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Kathleen Blake Yancey, a professor at Florida State University who served on the advisory panel for the test, said one factor is that research show most students in the United States don’t compose at the keyboard.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>“What they do is sort of type already written documents into the machine, much as we used to do with typewriters four decades ago,” she said.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Yancey said for this reason there was some concern about having students write on the computer as opposed to by hand.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Likewise, having the advantage of spell-check assumes student know how to use it. And in some schools and neighborhoods, computers are still not easily accessible.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>“There are not so many students that actually learn to write composing at the keyboard,” she said.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Yancey added that many students who do have access to computers are not necessarily using them to write at school, but to take standardized tests and filling in bubbles.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; min-height: 13px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>“Digital technology is a technology,” she said. “Paper and pencil is a technology. If technology were the answer, that would be pretty simple.”</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal 'Century Schoolbook'; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">------------------------</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Palatino; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; "><b class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">“Teach by Example”</span></b></div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Will Fitzhugh [founder]</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; "><i class="">The Concord Review</i> [1987]</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Ralph Waldo Emerson Prizes [1995]</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">National Writing Board [1998]</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">TCR Institute [2002]</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">730 Boston Post Road, Suite 24</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776-3371 USA</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">978-443-0022; 800-331-5007</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; color: rgb(21, 15, 133); font-size: 14px; "><span class="" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(56, 99, 187); "><a href="http://www.tcr.org/" class="">www.tcr.org</a></span><span class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">; <a href="mailto:fitzhugh@tcr.org" class=""><span class="" style="text-decoration: underline; ">fitzhugh@tcr.org</span></a></span></div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Varsity Academics®</div><div class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; "><a href="http://www.tcr.org/blog">www.tcr.org/blog</a></div></span></div></span></div></span></span></div><br></div></div><br></div>
</div></div><br></div></div><br></div></div><br></body></html>