ACT Visiting Teacher Opportunity Targets Minority Education

March 9, 2001

Note to Editors: This release reports a professional-development opportunity for high school teachers who work with minority students.

IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT, Inc. is renewing its Classroom Connections Program for visiting teachers. A six-week session this summer and an eight-week session in 2002 will immerse teachers who work with minority students in the development of college-entrance exams and supplementary materials to help increase other teachers' understanding of test results.

Applications from outstanding high school science, math and language-arts teachers are being accepted through March 30 for the summer session, which runs from June 18 to July 27. For the Feb. 4 to March 29, 2002, session, the application deadline is April 13.

Successful applicants will receive a stipend of $5,000 for the six-week session or $8,000 for the eight-week session, round-trip transportation, a "settling-in" fee and help securing temporary housing.

This program for visiting teachers is one of many efforts ACT makes to ensure that its tests continue to "reflect the college-preparatory courses taught in classrooms across the country," said Cynthia Miller, test development associate for ACT.

"The teachers will get hands-on experience they can take back to their own students and share with their colleagues."

Both sessions will involve the teachers in the creation of explanatory materials to help colleagues better understand what test scores mean and how test information can be used in the classroom to improve students' education. The visiting teachers will work directly with the teams that create ACT tests and will use their experience with minority students to help evaluate and improve test questions.

"With all the emphasis today on high standards and curriculum-based tests," Miller said, "it's essential that more teachers have the opportunity to see how they can use ACT tests, which have provided national standards for years, to connect their students to the curriculum that will lead them toward success after high school."