Do you have to be good at spelling to be a good writer? Not necessarily, at least not in Oregon public schools.

As middle and high school kids begin taking state writing tests next month, they'll have a new tool at their fingertips: spell check.

For the first time, Oregon is allowing students -- those taking online and paper tests -- to use a spell check button on a computer to check their work before submitting answers to the writing test prompts. State officials say the change is an opportunity to better assess students' writing skills and focus less on typos.

"We are not letting a student's keyboarding skills get in the way of being able to judge their writing ability," said state Superintendent Susan Castillo. "As we're using technology to improve what we're doing with assessments as a nation, we believe that spell check will be one of those tools."

Castillo and staff from the

presented information on the change Tuesday to members of the Oregon House Education Committee.

Legislators questioned whether research showed that allowing the use of spell check was in the best interest of students, and whether the move could put Oregon students behind peers in other states.

"The concern I was hearing from colleagues in my school districts is that seeing a kid struggle with spelling on the test forces them to continue to work on spelling with that student," said Rep. Sherrie Sprenger, R-Scio. "Instead, we're going to be saying there's a tool to adapt for that. But there's value in continuing to persevere in learning that skill."

Rep. Ron Maurer, D-Grants Pass, who ran unsuccessfully to unseat Castillo in May, said he disagreed with the whole idea of using the technology on student tests.

"I don't think it's in the best interest of our kids," he said. "That's just my philosophy."

Oregon was the first state to launch online adaptive testing for students and is likely treading new ground among states in the use of spell check as well. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, an assessment commonly referred to as the nation's report card, also has begun allowing students to use spell check during the writing test.

Fourth graders won't be able to use automatic spell check on the Oregon writing tests because department of education staff say elementary students are still learning the foundations of spelling. But, those kids will have access to a dictionary or a hand-held electronic spellchecker, as do all Oregon students.

A panel of school district administrators and teachers met for nearly a year to determine whether Oregon should begin using spell check. They determined that offering the option would also be more fair to students. Students who choose to complete work samples to demonstrate proficiency in a subject area instead of passing a state test would have the ability to use spell check.

And while students may be able to correct typos, department staff said students must still know how to spell and use grammar to be successful. In a demonstration of the automatic spell check, the system highlighted one commonly misspelled word but didn't catch misused punctuation, words written in all caps or homonyms.

The system will not automatically correct the misspelled words but will provide several options in a menu for students to choose.

"Students must still know how to recognize a correct word and correct spelling," said Tony Alpert, director of assessment at the state Department of Education. "We're giving one additional tool to students to identify potential misspellings. It's consistent with how we might expect kids to learn how to use the technology in life."