The Albuquerque Tribune

Students and teachers are being trained in ACE, an exam prep technique that is designed to help students prepare and defend their answers

By Susie Gran
Tribune Reporter
February 27, 2006

"Ace those answers" is more than pep talk at Washington Middle School.

Teachers and students have been trained in a test-prep technique called ACE, developed by a former Albuquerque classroom teacher.

ACE requires more thinking and more writing. Plus, students are prepared to defend and explain their answers.

Those skills become critical starting today, when annual testing begins for more than 55,000 students in Albuquerque Public Schools.

Reading and math scores on the New Mexico Standards-Based Assessment are used to grade their schools' annual academic progress, required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"ACE is a really good thing because our answers are more clear," said Washington seventh-grader Clement Peter Jose, 13.

Clement and his social studies classmates on Thursday used the method to answer questions about the 1600s in New Mexico, when disease and drought caused suffering and starvation among American Indians and Spaniards.

Across the state, teachers in schools that need improvement have been trained to use ACE, said trainer Karen Edwards, a retired Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary School teacher.

At Zuni Pueblo, teachers at the Dowa Yallane Elementary School told her ACE helped the school last year achieve adequate yearly progress for the first time.

Washington, the Downtown school struggling the longest to raise its test scores, wants the same results.

Washington teachers received two days of ACE training with Edwards, who tried the method for the first time in 2004 with first-graders.

"It was awesome," she said. "My kids really learned how to ace an extended response question."

Such questions require open-ended answers, which are common on the state test. Fewer questions today are multiple choice.

When applied to reading, ACE stands for answer the question, cite the evidence and expand your answer. For math, ACE stands for answer, compute, explain your answer.

Other schools use a variety of approaches to get students ready for the test.

"Everybody's test prepping," said Christina Fritz, the district's assessment manager.

The district distributed inch-thick binders with a series of practice items and topics to every school.

Also, the state Public Education Department provided letters and tips for parents and Internet links to test-prep materials and sample questions.

Washington Principal Cynthia Challberg-Hale said the ACE technique increases reading comprehension and helps students use problem-solving skills to attack word problems that dominate the math section on the test.

Washington's goal is to increase math and reading scores schoolwide by 3 percent, which the principal said is doable.

"We have students who are very capable and excellent teachers," Challberg-Hale said.

"The teachers are very enthusiastic" about ACE, she said.

Everyone's using it - even the band teacher, who is teaching literacy tied to music themes.

ACE is based on research that shows the more students write, the better they do on tests because writing increases comprehension,

"ACE is an actual teaching technique that you work into the regular curriculum," Challberg-Hale said.

In the past, the school used test-prep materials to give students strategies for testing, but it did not use a technique built into everyday lessons.

Social studies teacher Steve Tognoni and his daughter, Milagro Tognoni, also a teacher, on Thursday took their seventh-graders through New Mexico in the 1600s and the Pueblo Revolt.

Students read pages in history books, then answered each question with the ACE technique, looking for details in the text to support their answers.

"The students will tell you they don't like ACE because it makes them write too much," Steve Tognoni said.

Their answers were paragraphs, not a few words.

Student Clement agreed with the teacher.

"You have to write a lot," he said, "but you can explain more and it's good for us."

Clement said he's not dreading the big test.

"I'm ready for it."

New Mexico students start mandatory testing today. See how well you do with these sample test questions:

From third-grade math:

Juan and Jack saw ducks and goats at the petting zoo. Jack said, "There are 18 ducks and goats." Juan said, "All together, they have 52 legs!" How many ducks and how many goats did they see? Explain how you solve this problem and give your answer.

From third-grade science:

Compare and contrast the characteristics of the sun and the moon.

From fifth-grade math:

In Ms. Guzman's class, there are 15 kids who have brown eyes, six kids who have green eyes, five kids who have blue eyes, and four kids who have hazel eyes.

A. What fraction of the kids have brown eyes?

B. What fraction of the kids have blue eyes

C. What percentage of the kids have brown eyes?

D. What percentage of the kids have blue eyes?

From fifth-grade math:

Pick two simple machines - wheels and axles, levers, wedges, inclined planes, screws or pulleys - and describe how they work and what they can be used for. Where do you find these machines in your every day life?

What: New Mexico Standards-Based Assessment

When: Monday through March 24 for grades three through nine; Monday through March 17 for grade 11

Subjects: About 220 in 11 subtests in reading, writing, math and science.

Test booklet: 90 to 100 pages, varying by grade

Test length: About 11 hours

Schedule: Varies by school; elementary students typically spend one hour a day for 11 days; mid-schoolers, one to three hours a day; high schooler students, two or three full days

Question types: Multiple choice and open-ended

Pencil required: No. 2

Cost to APS: about $1.5 million

Test companies: Harcourt Assessment, Inc. for grades three through nine; Pearson Educational Measurement, grade 11

Source: New Mexico Public Education Department; Albuquerque Public Schools Assessment Manager Christina Fritz

All states must test to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which aims to close the achievement gap so that all children perform at the proficient level by 2012.

A proficient score means the student tested at grade level.

Each school's adequate yearly progress is based on student achievement, the percentage of students taking the test and attendance or graduation rates.

Copyright 2006, The Albuquerque Tribune. All Rights Reserved.