This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English EducationReport.

Last year, a report by a committee of education experts said alot of American students cannot write well. The report noted theconcerns of business leaders and teachers. The experts said morestudents should have to pass a writing test before they can finishhigh school. They pointed out that major college entrance tests arechanging now to include a writing part.

Educators know that teaching students to write well is not easy.One problem is the amount of time needed to read through largeamounts of work. So some companies have developed computer programs.These can grade student writing much more quickly than a human can.Writing tests can also cost less to administer by computer than bypaper-and-pencil.

These computer systems are known as e-raters. They use artificialintelligence to think in a way like teachers. In the state ofIndiana, computer grading of a statewide writing test began with atest of the system itself. For two years, both a computer and humansgraded the student writing. Officials say there was almost nodifference between the computer grades and those given by the humanreaders.

The entrance test commonly used by business schools, the GMAT,already uses e-readers. The G.R.E. and TOEFL tests might start;officials are deciding. The G.R.E. is the Graduate RecordExamination. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

Systems are also being used to grade writing in college classes.The computers read a few hundred examples of student writing alreadygraded by humans. Then the systems compare new essays against thosealready examined.

How do teachers feel about all this? Many say machines can neverdo the job as well as people can. A computer can find spelling andgrammar mistakes. But these teachers say it can never reallyunderstand what a writer is trying to say. Critics say a programcannot follow a thought or judge humor or understand a beautifullyexpressed idea.

But creators of the programs say computer grading guarantees thateach piece of writing is graded in the same way. They also say thesystems are meant to judge knowledge more than creativity.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by NancySteinbach. This is Steve Ember.