BOZEMAN - If Montana schools truly plan to teach students about the state's American Indians, their standardized tests should include questions about Indians, an official with the state Office of Public Instruction and others said Saturday.

"Testing is driving our system," Mike Jetty, Indian education specialist with the OPI, said during a daylong Native Nexus conference at Montana State University.

Standardized math and reading tests that are specially tailored to Montana schools are administered to all students in fourth, eighth and 10th grades. A third test, on science, is being developed.

The science test should contain at least one question that relates to American Indians, said Robin Arnold, a seventh-grade science teacher at Sacajawea Middle School in Bozeman. The question could be on native versus invasive plants or water and land resources, Arnold said.

Jetty urged educators to send such comments to the OPI, which is still considering the new science standards.

He added that the OPI is working to implement Indian Education for All, a 1999 legislative mandate, on three fronts: developing sample lessons, creating training for teachers and investigating ways to close the achievement gap between Indian and white students. Indian Education for All requires that all public school students _ not just American Indians _ be taught about the cultural heritage of the state's Indian tribes.

"No Child Left Behind is a worthy concept," Jetty said. "In Montana, who's consistently left behind? Indian students."

He quoted another Indian educator, saying, "In regards to Indian education, there's been much thunder, little rain."