June 21, 1983

THE State of New York has begun an effort to emphasize the teaching of writing in elementary schools by administering a test to every fifth grader and requiring remedial attention in the sixth grade for students who score below a minimum level. Education officials see the test not only as a tool for identifying the writing problems of students, but also as a way to prod the schools to lay greater stress on writing, which many believe does not get as much attention as reading and mathematics. ''I am sure this will put pressure on the schools to have kids write more,'' said Charles Chew, chief of the Bureau of English and Reading in the State Education Department. ''There just has not been enough attention in the last 10 years to having students generate ideas, get them down on paper and rework them.''

The Sports News Briefs column yesterday incorrectly identified the event in which Ramona Neubert set a world record. It was the heptathlon.

International The Pope praised the achievements of the outlawed Solidarity union and declared that the events it had set in motion were of a ''moral,'' nonviolent nature. John Paul II, speaking to about a million people in a vast field outside the Polish city of Katowice, said that ''these events concerned above all the moral order itself regarding human labor and not only wage increases.'' (Page A1, Column 6.) ''He has fulfilled his task completely,'' according to a man from Gdansk, basking in Poznan in the presence of Pope John Paul II. ''He came here and did good.'' A group of 760 people from Gdansk, where Solidarity was founded, stressed how pleased they were at the way the Pope's visit had become a political event. (A1:5.)

The personal income of Americans rose 1.2 percent in May, the biggest month-to-month increase in nearly two years, the Commerce Department reported today. Consumer spending rose even more in May than income, by 1.4 percent. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, whose department released the report, said the increases in personal income and spending ''will fuel further vigorous economic growth this summer.'' He added that the greater outlays were ''spurred by rising consumer confidence'' as well as the higher income and, in turn, should prompt businesses to spend more in coming months on capital investment and inventories in expectation of strong sales.

A group of black civil rights and political leaders voted today to approve the concept of a black candidate's seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination. Before making its decision, the group met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been traveling throughout the country to test support for a campaign on his part. But it stopped short of endorsing Mr. Jackson and in a ''unanimous decision'' agreed not to support any specific candidate for the time being. Instead, the group agreed to organize a ''black coalition for 1984, to work on voter registration and to promote a people's platform'' intended to project minority concerns in the Democratic campaign, according to Walter E. Fauntroy, Delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia.