N.J. fourth graders flunk writing exam in droves

Updated 6:37 PM ET August 22, 2000

TRENTON, N.J. (Reuters) - New Jersey's 100,000 fourth-graders do pretty well on multiple-choice tests in math and science, just don't expect them to be able to write home about it.

State education officials announced Tuesday that more than half of the fourth-graders in New Jersey, who are typically aged 10, failed the language arts section of a skills assessment test that required open-ended answers to questions on reading comprehension and writing.

Essay writing questions posed the main problem. Forty percent of the students got a zero grade on one essay question that asked them to craft a paragraph of disjointed information into a coherent story.

The exams, given last spring, were actually designed to assess the performance of individual school districts.

New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe called for a review of the grading procedures that a private North Carolina contractor used to evaluate test answers in the reading and writing section.

"We expect large numbers of students still to be below proficiency in writing," said Hespe, deflecting suggestions that the state government was hoping to lower the bar for passing grades. "Writing will still be a very troublesome area."

More than 80 percent of the state's fourth-graders passed the science and math sections, which required only multiple-choice answers.

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