Write and Wrong on the SAT

Re “How I Gamed the SAT,” (Opinion, April 3): Shock and awe describe my feelings after reading Karin Klein on the new SAT essay exam.

I’m awed that she thinks high school teachers have only 130 students (they have 175) and that teachers assign “ ‘reports’ that involve little more than pasting pictures on poster board.”

How sad to put this image in the mind of your readers when dedicated teachers devote themselves to the betterment of the lives of other people’s children.

As a former high school English teacher and current high school counselor, I too scored the latest SAT essay exam.

It is true that we were told to read the essay through once, but only to get an overall feel for the writing.

We were told not to analyze at this point but upon reading the essay several more times, and based upon the rubric given us, readers were able to categorize the essay according to the standards set by the college board (all standardized tests use a baseline).

And, yes, students who wrote one page or less actually did receive top scores.

I take exception to Klein’s recommendation to “prepare a few highly burnished words that can be applied to almost any situation.” An educated reader can tell when words or sentences are thrown into an essay to try to impress the reader.

Klein referred to struggling writers as “bottom feeders.”

I can only guess that with Klein’s acerbic wit she is a great addition to your editorial staff, but as an outsider who does not know the inner workings of a school system, she insults those hardworking teachers who labor year after year against nearly insurmountable odds to teach our students to think and to write.

How about an article about today’s teacher who sacrifices a “normal” life for that of a teacher?

Lois Bustard

Counselor, Pacifica High School

Oxnard

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Klein makes an excellent case against having an essay on the new SATs and negates it as being merely a tool to stop the University of California from dropping the test as a requirement for admissions.

A vast majority of our high schoolers use instant messaging. Without essays like these that force students to use erudite English, “you” will soon become “u.” “For” will become “4.”

And our nation’s eligible workforce will become zero.

The ability to write makes or breaks a person and, the way our society is going, that ability to write will soon become a lost art. Forget keeping jobs here. Without good writers, how will we communicate with writers in India -- who are required to write an essay beginning in elementary school. We will be lucky if Indians outsource their manufacturing jobs here.

But even with all those arguments for an essay on the SAT, it is ridiculous, and derisory even, that students are given only 25 minutes to write an essay that will shape their future.

(Writing this little letter of less than 200 words took me 30 minutes.)

Falak D. Shah

Gainesville, Fla.

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Re “UC Reduces Its Low-SAT Acceptances,” April 4: As a history teacher at an urban middle school in South-Central Los Angeles, I find it difficult to affirm the implied argument that minorities, principally Latinos and blacks, are still unqualified for the University of California.

The data seem to paint a portrait of the UC system doing minorities a favor through its admissions practices. In the eyes of the system, minorities are not qualified for higher education.

Minorities can never seem to make the right score or possess the right stuff. This instills in my kids the impression that the odds continue to be against their efforts.

If higher education cannot keep up with increased numbers of successful high school students, minority or whomever, we can look forward to an increase in dropout rates, poverty ranks and crime.

Individual struggle is an admirable trait that I encourage in my students.

However, it becomes difficult the second the UC system and society in general value standardize scores over years of hard work coupled with the content of one’s character.

Walter Pineda

Los Angeles