Institute for American Indian Education Offers Free Test Prep for N.M. Native American Teachers (fwd)

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Institute for American Indian Education Offers Free Test Prep for N.M.
Native American Teachers
http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/002311.html

Standardized tests often present particular challenges for those outside the
cultural context in which the test is written. The University of New Mexico
Institute for American Indian Education offers free workshops to help New
Mexico’s Native American teachers and pre-service teachers overcome that
challenge on the New Mexico Teacher Assessment Test.

IAIE, in the UNM College of Education, will offer the next workshop on
Saturday, Oct. 20, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the Henderson Fine Arts building,
room 9010, at San Juan College in Farmington, N.M.

The New Mexico Teacher Assessment is a mandatory test to fulfill part of the
state’s teacher licensure requirements.

Anne Calhoun, UNM associate professor in the Department of Language,
Literacy and Sociocultural Studies, said the test’s cultural assumptions
can pose a problem for Native American teachers. “Indigenous epistemologies
look for ways to explain multiple and contradictory events, while Western
epistemology looks for one correct or one better explanation for events,”
she said.

Language can also be a barrier. “The teachers primarily have difficulty with
the syntax of academic English [on the test] because it neither conforms to
their Indigenous languages nor everyday classroom English,” Calhoun said.

Calhoun co-teaches the IAIE Teacher Test Taking workshops with Professor
Emerita Anita Bradley Pfeifer. During the workshop, teachers take practice
tests and learn relaxation techniques and study and memory skills to help
cope with test anxiety.

“We also have them deconstruct the most problematic questions after giving
them the correct answers and then have them write the question as it would
make sense to them,” Calhoun said. “This deconstruction/reconstruction
process helps them understand how test items are made and how to think
about the language in them.”

The New Mexico Public Education Department Indian Education Division awarded
a grant of $124,953 to fund the Native American Teacher Test Taking
workshops and other outreach services to recruit Native students into
teaching and revitalize Native languages in an effort to comply with the
Indian Education Act of 2003.

In addition to free registration, $30 stipends are available to cover travel
expenses. For more information and the registration form, visit Institute
for American Indian Education, call (505) 277-7781 or e-mail ptate at unm.edu.

Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal at unm.edu