Connecticut Mastery Test Moves

From September To Spring

HARTFORD (AP) — School children in Connecticut can hit the books immediately this month rather than start school with a test.

For the first time in 20 years, the Connecticut Mastery Test will not be administered in September, having been switched by state education officials to the spring.

Teachers say the shift has made a difference in classrooms where many children had spent the first month of school practicing test-taking strategies, filling out worksheets and working to improve their reading, math and writing skills for the test.

At Pine Grove School in Avon, the difference is striking, said Sandy Hierl, a teacher. She said she has begun teaching science and social studies lessons that had not been a priority in previous Septembers.

Hierl now has more time to establish a routine with her new class of fourth-graders, she said.

“Instead of helping them become reliable fourth-graders, it would be: Can you be the best test-takers I can produce in three weeks?” Hierl said. “It [was] a terrible way to start the school year. ... Now I feel I have the luxury to really get into the curriculum.”

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Connecticut will expand its mastery test in the spring to include children in grades three through eight. The test previously was given to fourth-, sixth- and eighth-grade students.

A few states schedule statewide achievement tests in the fall, but most do so in the spring, according to a study by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University.

Some educators believe schools will get a more accurate view of what children have learned from tests after the school year is well under way. Others say a test at the beginning of the year makes sense even if children have forgotten some material during the summer.

“If they forgot it, then they didn’t learn it,” said state Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg. “If you really believe in testing what kids know, it doesn’t matter when you do it.”

The state Board of Education switched the testing period more than two years ago, in part because some board members believed test results would be more timely.

If mastery test results are available in the summer, schools can begin work with students immediately, said Donald Coolican, a member of the state board. With the previous fall tests, schools waited months for the results because they did not receive the scores until January or later.

For many educators, the biggest benefit of the new test date is to start the school year more smoothly.

“Logistically, it’s a nightmare to test within three weeks of opening schools,” said Doris J. Kurtz, superintendent of New Britain public schools and president of the Connecticut Association of Urban Superintendents.

But some question whether the new test date just shifts test-taking drills to the spring.

Some teachers believer fewer drills will be needed because students by March will be familiar with the routine of school and the type of test questions.