New citizenship law means big changes for Minnesota's foreign-born

CATHY WURZER: In Minnesota, nearly half a million people or 1 in 12 are foreign born. And that number is growing every year as people come to our state in search of a better life. For those who settle here, becoming a citizen of the United States is no easy task. To even qualify, most immigrants have to first be a permanent resident for at least five years. After that comes filling out complicated forms, learning a new language, and taking classes. And one of the final steps is the citizenship test.

Right now the federal government is piloting some big changes to the test. US attorneys say the test was due-- authorities say the test was due for an update after 15 years. But there are worries that the changes could hurt test takers of lower levels of English proficiency. Joining us to explain the possible changes and their impacts is Mya Shaftel, an English as a second language and citizenship class teacher with Literacy Minnesota. Mya, welcome.

MYA SHAFTEL: Hi, Cathy. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks for being here. My goodness. I understand at Literacy Minnesota, it's about three months of classes to prepare for the test, right? And the current test is not exactly a cakewalk. Explain what it's all about.

MYA SHAFTEL: Well, the current test-- so our applicants and our students are studying from a list of 100 US civics and history questions. Some of these can be pretty basic questions, who is the first president of the United States. Some of them can be a little more complicated, describing two ways Americans can participate in their democracy.

Some of these questions have just one answer. Some have multiple answers that they need to study and learn and memorize. And the current format, it's an oral interview. So our students, the applicants go in. And they are asked from a randomized set of 10 questions. They need to answer six correctly to pass that portion of the test. The civics and history portion is just one part of several parts of the test.

CATHY WURZER: So it's involved.

MYA SHAFTEL: It is. That's just part of it as I said. So they are needing to do a lot of history and practice. And in classes, we do a lot of studying and explaining some of our civics, our history.

The change that is coming for this part of the test is while at the moment it's an oral format-- so we do a lot of practice with, here's a question. Here's a sample set of questions. And here is one or two possible answers that our learners like to learn, understand, study, and then have in their pocket to be able to practice for the many months that they are preparing for the interview.

The proposed change would be to make it a multiple-choice test and a reading test on a computer or on a tablet. And this would add a level of difficulty for many of our applicants as you indicated for a couple of different reasons.

First of all, the applicants would need to understand more of the content. So from before, if they're given a question, for example, what is one or freedom from the First Amendment-- and there are five possible answers, five possible correct answers for that question. They've chosen one they can practice and study. But if they change it to a multiple-choice test, and there are five or more choices, they're going to have to learn a lot more content in order to know which ones they can eliminate.

So just having a deeper understanding of some of these more intricate questions will be the first hurdle to get over. And as you said, for those of our applicants who are coming to us with a lower level of English to begin with, that's a little bit of a jump.

CATHY WURZER: Now, in the current--

MYA SHAFTEL: The second part of this that may--

CATHY WURZER: And does the current test-- I mean, let me ask you this about you mentioned English. I know the current test, an officer will evaluate someone's speaking ability during the interview by asking personal questions. Does this new test-- must have a speaking section to assess English skills? How would that be done?

MYA SHAFTEL: So they're proposing an additional English language requirement, where the applicants would be shown a picture and then asked by the officer, tell me about this picture.

So the way it is now, their English is assessed in the interview from their application with sort of general background questions about each applicant, things that they are likely to know and things we go over quite a bit in class, their background information, their demographics, their work history, things about their family, where they have lived. So the officer is sort of making small talk and just asking them about information about themselves that they would know.

The proposed one would be a picture-- the example that USCIS, so US Citizenship and Immigration Services, has right now on their website as an example is a picture of a mother and a child in a kitchen, standing over a stove cooking. So they'd be asked to provide some vocabulary, some simple sentences, some relevant vocabulary in order to describe what's happening in that picture, which for lower-level English learners may be doable.

We don't know yet how those would be scored. And I think that's part of the question and part of what we'll see as these are being piloted is how they will be scored and then what will be considered a passing level of English with a description about a picture.

CATHY WURZER: Hmm. Knowing what you know, do these changes make sense to you as the knowledge necessary, the knowledge needed to become a US citizen?

MYA SHAFTEL: Well, I understand the need to update tests. I think USCIS wants to stay in line with the best test practices, including some digital literacy skills if they're now needing to take this on computer. I do think USCIS is being very transparent about the changes they're planning to make on the test. And they're offering really appropriate resources for educators on their websites to help do the preparations.

I don't know if it's necessary. At this level, we see our adult immigrants and refugees coming in to the communities and already contributing in very meaningful ways with the level of English that they have. We no longer term everyone's goal is to have better English and to be able to give back more in the community. But we would really need to increase instruction on how to take a multiple-choice test. And the reading level for applicants would really need to be at really the next level up in order to likely pass a test like this.

So I think we would see a longer period before applicants might feel ready to apply for citizenship test. I think they would need to increase their preparation. I think things might just be delayed a little bit with some of these changes.

CATHY WURZER: Now, I understand this is still being piloted. Do you think that these changes will indeed go through?

MYA SHAFTEL: Oh, that's a good question. I think-- I would expect to see that some of the changes will go through. Another part of this that does bring me comfort is there is an advisory group who is going through the pilot as well. And they will look at all of the feedback.

And that pilot group does have members from the adult education field in it from testing assessments as well as experts on US history and government. So I'm hopeful that that group and whatever they find out from the pilot will be able to make some good recommendations.

So if it's a matter of altering some of the questions, so instead of having 10 possible answers that somebody might need to be able to read and understand and know the background knowledge of on a multiple-choice test, maybe they can simplify some of that language that would be more appropriate for the levels of English that we see our learners going through and maybe including-- I would like to see them continue to use their application for some of their English language assessments.

So that's something that if they continue, I think they could make a couple of changes. But I would expect to see some of what they are doing come to be in the new testing format.

CATHY WURZER: Mm-hmm. Interesting. Wow, there's a lot to think about here. And obviously, your job may be a little more complicated in the future. Mya, I appreciate your time. Thank you so very much.

MYA SHAFTEL: Thank you, Cathy. Great to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Mya Shaftel teaches ESL and citizenship classes with Literacy Minnesota. If you like more information, you can always call the Adult Literacy Hotline at 1-800-222-1990. You can also text 612-424-1211. Or you can go online if you'd like, hotline.mnabe.org. It's 12:39.