It’s Time For Mastery Tests In

Newtown’s Schools

By Tanjua Damon

The start of the school year also means testing time for fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students across the state, with Newtown being no exception.

The Connecticut Mastery Tests began September 24 and will end October 4. Students are being tested in reading, writing, and math, totaling more than seven hours of testing time for sixth and eighth graders and over six hours for fourth graders. This year starts the third generation of testing, meaning another revision has been made to the test, changing it slightly, according to Newtown Assistant Superintendent Robert Kuklis. The first generation test ended in 1993 and the second ended last year.

The tests provide two different sets of data, Dr Kuklis said. The first is the number of students reaching the goal standard and the index number, calculations that determine if a student’s scores are above average, average, or below average.

Some may wonder why testing starts so soon after the first day of school. In Newtown, students returned on Wednesday, August 30 – less than 30 days ago.

“The state made a decision to test in the beginning of the year rather than at the end of the year,” he said. “Some districts disagree, but they [state] felt you would have a better reading at the beginning rather than the end so school districts could use the data throughout the year.”

In late December or early January, Newtown will begin receiving results from the three grades. This data will include the percent of students who are meeting the goal standard, Dr Kuklis said. Then in February, individual test scores and comparisons with other districts will arrive.

New goal standards will be set for this year, according to Dr Kuklis. Last year, students in fourth grade could score 121; sixth grade, 154; and in eighth grade, 176. The new standards are in process still, he said.

“We have done very well,” Dr Kuklis said. “At the top or at the set levels.”

CMTs are one way to see what students are retaining and how they perform, but are not the only way to gain data on students’ performance.

“I think that they are one indicator of student performance,” he said. “I don’t think you can take them as really reflective of the learning that is going on. They are a snapshot and they should be looked at as a snapshot.”

Collecting data internally to measure how students are doing has not happened so much in school districts across the state, Dr Kuklis said. But schools are making more of an effort to collect their own data.

“Schools have not done a good job collecting data systematically,” he said. “It’s not the be-all or end-all of learning. Collecting our own internal information we’re getting better. It’s one piece of information.”

The Connecticut Mastery Test was developed in response to legislation passed by the Connecticut General Assembly. The tests were first administered in 1985.