ACT invites teachers to get, give insight into test writing

"I feel the frustration," said Eddie Fernandez, language arts teacher at the Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami. "It is very hard to come up with these questions."

Fernandez and the others are taking part in the six-week ACT visiting teacher program, which allows teachers of minority students to see firsthand how the standardized tests are written.

The ACT is written by Iowa City-based ACT Inc., formerly known as American College Testing. Each year, more than 1.7 million students across the country take the ACT.

The goal of the visiting teacher program is twofold.

First, the teachers create workshop materials to help with test preparation and can take what they've learned back to their classrooms. Secondly, according to ACT vice president for test development Cyndie Schmeiser, "They help us evaluate our tests in light of what's being taught in today's classrooms, and we benefit greatly from their knowledge."

Fernandez and Gigi Jasper, a language arts teacher from Rock Springs High School in Rock Springs, Wyo., are helping develop English and reading questions for the tests.

David Duer, senior language arts test development associate at ACT, said he can't guarantee that the questions they develop will be used on an actual test. The questions have to be tested first, he said.

Fernandez said he considers his own students when writing the questions.

"How is my student going to read this?" he said he asks himself.

Jasper said she sometimes finds it difficult to develop a question in the acceptable limits. Considering all the possible answers to one question also makes the task more difficult, she said.

She also said she was surprised by how much gender and ethnic fairness must be considered in writing questions.

Carlos Betancourt, language arts teacher at the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Visual and Performing Arts, said that if a student sees something they view as biased, it could prevent them from doing well on the rest of the test.

"Nothing should prevent students from doing what they have to do," he said.

Claudia Gary, a math teacher in Amphitheater High School in Phoenix, Ariz., said she tries to use names that aren't gender-specific in story problems.

Gary and Betancourt are creating an ACT workshop for teachers that will help teachers prepare students for the test.

The workshop will be used for math and English teachers in Illinois, where all high-school juniors will be required to take the ACT this year at the state's expense.

Betancourt said his experience will help improve the two-day ACT preparation course he teaches. He said he will able to make clearer to students that his lessons are connected to the test.

"What we are teaching them will bear fruit," he said.

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