Newtown Fourth & Sixth Graders Excel On CMT, Eighth Grade Reading Score Drops

By John Voket

Based on statistics released Monday, it appears that Newtown’s younger students are easily grasping the majority of reading, writing, and math skills they are challenged to apply on the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs). But when it comes to sixth and eighth grade writing, and especially eighth grade reading, the 2004 CMT outcomes may point to areas of specific concern.

School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff told The Bee Tuesday morning that Newtown’s sixth grade math scores are number one among districts in the same Educational Resource Group (ERG). The ERGs are comprised of groups of school districts closely matched in numerous criteria including student population, municipality size, and student demographics.

Dr Pitkoff also noted that fourth graders scored second place across the board in reading, writing, and math among districts in their ERG.

The most notable difference in the CMT score stats for the Newtown district, however, is the disturbing drop in eighth grade reading results from 96 percent above proficiency to 88 percent. Going back to the year 2001, eighth graders scored increasingly better each year moving from a 92 percent above proficiency to 95 percent in 2002 and 96 percent in 2003.

Expressing added concern, Dr Pitkoff pointed out that sixth and eighth grade writing scores will also become an area of focus. The sixth grade scores have leveled off at 93 percent over the past two years, down from a 95 percent high in 2001. The overall district eighth grade writing scores were down to 90 percent from a five-year high score of 97 last year.

According to the superintendent, every year’s mastery test results are an opportunity to look at Newtown students as individuals, as members of their respective classes, but also in comparison to students from similar demographic districts across the state.

Focusing On The       Nitty-Gritty

“Reviewing and breaking down these numbers and examining individual students and class scores are an education for us,” Dr Pitkoff said. “It’s most critical to look at individual scores and subscores to find commonalities in certain grades, and to modify the curriculum as needed.”

And once the CMT scores are reviewed, students will not be left waiting until September for curriculum changes to occur.

“We aren’t going to wait to make changes until the next school year,” Dr Pitkoff said. “We can react as quickly as right now. These are skill areas that are very important so we will look at what we have to do and begin the process of making the necessary adjustments right away.”

A broader take on all of Newtown’s 2004 CMT results show all but three categories exceeding not only the ERG average, but in virtually every category, Newtown fourth, sixth, and eighth-graders outpace the state averages by an even greater margin.

For example, Dr Pitkoff said the combined district fourth grade math score of 82 percent exceeds the ERG average of 75 percent and the state average of 55 percent. The sixth grade math score locally stands at 87 percent compared to an ERG average of 81 percent and a statewide average of just 60.9 percent.

At the eighth grade level, math scores continue to excel with Newtown’s 80 percent exceeding the ERG average of 77 and the state’s 64.9 percent. The eighth grade reading scores fall below the ERG by one percent, but are down an uncharacteristic 16 percent in writing.

But Newtown’s eighth grade scores still outpace the state standards by 15 to more than 20 percent across the three categories.

Dr Pitkoff said that when examining the numbers, one must take into account certain recent state testing trends and mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative. These initiatives support testing an increasing number of students. These new-to-CMT subgroups include special education and English Language Learners (ELLs) who were to be tested along with their peers at grade level, not their learning level.

This point is of particular concern to Connecticut Education Commissioner, Dr Betty Sternberg.

The commissioner said that over the period from 2000 through 2004, the participation rate of students on the CMT assessment significantly increased statewide. For these aforementioned subgroups, the increases were dramatic, she explained.

Participation of students with disabilities increased by 29 percentage points and of English language learners (ELLs) by 60 percentage points. These increases are a result of longstanding efforts by the State Department of Education and school districts to have more students take the CMT, and requirements of the federal NCLB Act.

“The increases in participation rates are positive,” said Commissioner Sternberg. “We want more of our students to have access to the CMT and to take the test, because results help us learn — on the student, classroom, school, and district levels — what our students know and can do and how curriculum and instruction can be changed to address weaknesses.

“There is a caveat, however. NCLB mandates us to test our students with disabilities at their grade level; we believe that testing them at their instructional level is more appropriate, and consistent with Connecticut’s commitment to testing what is important, reasonable, and challenging for all of our students,” Dr Sternberg added. “I have requested this change, but have been consistently denied it by the US Department of Education.”

Newtown Vs Neighbors

Looking beyond Newtown to neighboring communities in the ERG offers some other interesting comparisons. Where Newtown sixth graders led the 2004 ERG in math with 97 percent proficiency, its neighboring towns of Bethel, Brookfield, and Monroe came in with scores of 92, 94, and 94 percent, respectively.

For the same grade level in reading, the neighboring communities logged scores of 82, 84, and 87 respectively, all falling short of Newtown’s proficiency of 90 percent. In the writing category, Newtown’s sixth graders scored 93 versus the respective scores of 87 for Bethel, 92 for Brookfield, and 91 for Monroe.

Comparing the same towns at the eighth grade level, Newtown’s 2004 math proficiency stands at 93 compared to Bethel, Brookfield, and Monroe’s scores of 88, 93, and 88, respectively. While the reading proficiency in Newtown is at a five-year low of 88 percent, the three neighboring towns stats range from 84, to 92 to 90.

In writing Bethel’s overall eighth graders scored 86 compared to Brookfield’s score of 90 and Monroe’s score of 92 against Newtown’s eighth grade proficiency of 90.

In the reading category specifically, Dr Pitkoff credits the district’s reading specialists with inspiring such high scores. The lack of such specialists at the intermediate and middle school, however, may be reflected in the downward trending scores compared to the overall ERG as students advance through the system.

“In the intermediate and middle school levels, we don’t have the same ratio of reading teachers to students,” he said. “But we aim to [continue] providing instructional level reading materials, while working with the students in their regular courses and providing added assistance wherever possible.”

According to Commissioner Sternberg, the next generation of the CMT will be administered beginning in spring 2006 to students in grades 3 through 8. NCLB requires that Connecticut add testing in grades 3, 5, and 7. To do so, Connecticut will spend an additional $8 million over and above what federal funds provide to meet this NCLB mandate.