NCTE Is Critical of New College-Admissions Essay Tests

English teachers have taken their red pens to the new SAT and ACT writing tests, and they have some critical words not for the student writers but for the test-makers.

The National Council of Teachers of English says the writing tests on the college-entrance exams are unlikely to improve the teaching of writing in schools and could tip the balance against students in poorer school districts.

Robert P. Yagelski, an associate professor of English at the State University of New York at Albany and the chairman of the seven-member NCTE task force that prepared the report, said the SAT essay, one of two components in the new writing test, “dramatically narrows” the scope...