UNM Branch Campus Los Alamos sample logo

The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE




Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593, michal@unm.edu

October 15, 2007

UNM IAIE Offers Free Test Prep for N.M. Native American Teachers

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 http://www.unm.edu/~iaie, call (505) 277-7781 or email ptate@unm.edu.


The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

www.unm.edu