NATION IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Decision on SAT Changes Delayed

Trustees of the College Board, hoping to make the Scholastic Aptitude Test less coachable and more relevant to classroom learning, voted to postpone for a month a decision on whether to adopt sweeping changes in the test. Board officials meeting in New York refused to comment on the precise nature of the changes, but proposals under consideration include adding an essay to the widely used college admissions test, dropping some multiple-choice math questions in favor of open questions without hints and increasing the emphasis on critical reading in the verbal section.