Spell check OK for students taking tests

SALEM, Ore., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Oregon students will be permitted to use their computers' spell check feature when taking the state writing test, state education department officials said.

The test judges the seventh-grade and high school students' essays, written in response to a prompt, on six criteria, including organization and sentence fluency -- but the single more important part of their score is English conventions, which count for twice as much as any other criterion, The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported Thursday.

A computer's spell checking feature can correct errors in spelling and capitalization.

"The increasing use of computers with spell checkers for communication in the work place, college, postsecondary training and the military," were cited as reasons for the policy change in Salem.