The Massachusetts Department of Education has completed development of the subject matter test for ABE, which brings the ABE teacher's license closer in line with other state teachers' licenses. Be-cause the ABE teacher's license was designed for teachers of all ABE populations (ESOL, literacy, basic skills, or GED/ASE), the ABE subject matter test was designed to ensure that licensed teachers have sufficient knowledge and skills to function well in a range of classrooms.

With the test now officially ready, all applicants for the provisional level of the ABE teacher's license must now pass both the communication and literacy tests and the ABE subject matter test (minimum score: 70). After October 1, 2006, applicants for the professional level must pass these tests as well.

Because our license is a general one, the ABE subject matter test requires that test takers know something about language acquisition theory, math through algebra and geometry, basic history and science, and writing and editing skills. This array might seem daunting at first, but if you assess your current knowledge and skills honestly and then set up a plan to address them (before taking the test, of course!), you can, in my opinion, pass the test without much trouble. You can access good information about the test at either www.doe.mass.edu/mtel or www.mtel.nesinc.com and even download test prep materials, including sample test questions. The prep materials advise you to set up a test preparation plan, which I did. I'll give details of my plan below.

You are given four hours to complete the test, which I believe most people will find more than sufficient. My guess is that you'll spend roughly two-thirds of your time on the 100 multiple choice questions and one -third on two writing tasks. The multiple choice questions cover language acquisition theory, English language arts, history/social science, science, and mathematics. Let's take up each in turn.

Language Acquisition Theory
I knew something about this but not a lot, so I checked out from the ALRI library the text used for SABES's two ESOL license-compatible courses—H. Douglas Brown's Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Regents, 1994 and later editions—and read a chapter a day and took notes. The text is well-written and very interesting. I supplemented this with a great glossary that I printed out from earthrenewal.org/secondlang.htm. These two resources prepared me very well for the language acquisition questions on the test.

English Language Arts
I gambled that my basic teaching experience would stand me in good stead for these questions, and it did. The test uses predictable sorts of questions about repairing faulty sentence or paragraph structures and grammar.

History/Social Science
I did not study for this section and found that I could answer the questions very easily simply by being educated in this country, or by comprehending information from supplied passages. If you are feeling iffy about your American history, though, I think reading the American history section in a good encyclopedia would be sufficient preparation.

Science
Again, I did not study ahead for this section. I found that the 10 questions touched on common sorts of discrete knowledge or the ability to comprehend the information in a paragraph or short passage.

Mathematics
Fortunately, I've been a math instructor, but I didn't want to take any chances with my aging brain. So I reviewed the Princeton Review GED test preparation book by going through content that I'm rusty on: stats, coordinates, algebra, and geometry. This took only a few hours total and put me on a solid footing for the math questions.

Writing and Editing
The test includes a sort of mini-communications and literacy test, in that test takers must write a short passage that is well-organized and grammatically sound and, secondly, revise at least five parts of a printed passage that contains problems with organization and clarity. I did not find these tasks difficult, and I do not believe that most teachers will; however, it does require a pretty high English fluency level, so some teachers for whom English is not their first language might find them challenging without some form of preparation and practice.

Carey Reid provides ABE licensure support for SABES. He can be reached at: creid@worlded.org