A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  Contact:  Melinda Kitchell    June 7, 1994                                       (202) 401-1008

MAJORITY OF AMERICAN STUDENTS NEED TO IMPROVE WRITING, STUDY REVEALS

Most American students will have to work harder to meet new high standards of writing, according to the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress 1992 Writing Report Card released today.

The new study from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows that even the best students who are able to write informative and narrative pieces have trouble preparing arguments and evidence in persuasive writing tasks. Fewer than 20 percent of students can write at an "elaborated," or well developed and detailed level, to complete a short assignment.

"The ability to express oneself in writing is critical to a world-class education," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said. "This tough new test tells us that we have our work cut out for us to improve the writing of American students, but the good news is we know how to fix the problem. With the Goals 2000 Act, we are putting the elements in place to make our students' writing what it should be."

To compile the 1992 Writing Report Card, NCES used nationally representative samples of 4th-, 8th- and 12th-grade students -- 30,000 in all -- and had them respond to a variety of persuasive, narrative and informative writing tasks, defined as:

Persuasive writing: focused on exerting an impact on the reader and influencing others to take some action or bring about change;
Narrative writing: stories or essays that emphasize the writer's experiences, perception and imagination; and
Informative writing: subject matter that is being explained and emphasizes the sharing of knowledge, messages, instruction and ideas.

Students completed either two 25-minute writing tasks or one 50-minute task as part of the assessment. Some students were asked to identify problems that existed in their schools and discuss the causes and effects of that problem; others wrote persuasive letters to a director of a space project about whether to allow creatures from another planet to return home.

The writing tasks were scored at six successive levels: (6) extensively elaborated (the highest score); (5) elaborated; (4) developed; (3) minimally developed; (2) undeveloped; and (1) response -- meaning student responded to some aspect of the task (see Figure 1 in the report).

"Writing is starting to get the attention it deserves," Riley said. "A significant aspect of this report is that it describes the keys to teaching good writing, such as giving literature a central place in the instructional process; asking students to choose their topics; encouraging students to write longer essays; having students outline, draft and revise their work; focusing on quality and creativity; making writing a part of every academic subject; and having the active support and encouragement of parents."

Among the report's other highlights:

Teachers in top-performing schools report that they often asked students to write about literature and to choose their own topics.
Students in top-performing schools report that they were asked to plan their writing, write more than one draft, and focus on the mechanics of writing but thought their teachers graded their writing more on quality and creativity.
In general, the data demonstrate that effective writing instruction includes an emphasis on the teaching of the writing process; integrating reading, writing and language tasks; and an emphasis on the quality and coherence of the written product.
Using the writing process, doing challenging and lengthy writing assignments, analyzing and interpreting rather than preparing summaries and reports, doing homework, having reading materials in the home, and limited television watching are associated with high writing achievement.
A large gap in writing skills exists between the best performing students and the poorest performing students. Eighth-graders in the top one-third of schools score better than 12th-graders in the bottom third of schools. In this sample, white and Asian Americans do better than African Americans and Hispanics, girls write better than boys, and private school students outperform public school students.
While the percentage of 8th-graders who are taught writing for at least an hour a week went up between 1988 and 1992, writing is still not emphasized relative to other subjects such as mathematics, which is taught five or more hours a week. More than half of 8th-graders and more than a third of 12th-graders report never or hardly ever being given writing assignments of three or more pages.
In persuasive writing, "developed" or better responses were infrequent across all grades -- ranging from 7 to 25 percent. Students generally made their opinions understood and presented one or two brief reasons in support of their position, but few could develop their responses further.
About a quarter of 4th-graders and about half of 8th- and 12th-graders write "developed" or better responses to narrative tasks, but "elaborated" or better responses are rare.

The report is available by calling the GPO Order Desk at (202) 783-3238.