Newtown Students’ CMT Scores Show Mixed Results

By Eliza Hallabeck

Newtown students sat down again in March to take the Connecticut Mastery Test and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, and the results were released by the state this month. At the Board of Education’s meeting Tuesday, September 16, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda presented the mastery test results from the Newtown schools.

The Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) are standardized tests given to elementary and middle school grade students. Starting in the third grade students are tested for reading, writing, and math. This year students in grades five and eight were given an assessment in science for the first time, as well as being tested in the other areas. The results from the CAPT will be presented during the Board of Ed’s next meeting by Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais, according to Dr Gejda.

Students in most of the grades in Newtown scored well in math and lower in reading and writing. All of the grades showed different results in each of the three categories, but in general Newtown students scored higher in math and reading. When compared to students in the rest of the state, Newtown’s students scored higher.

In Newtown 98 percent of the students scheduled to take the CMT actually took the test, and, Dr Gejda said, the two percent accounts for students who were absent.

Overall there was a mixture of scores for the school grades on the CMT.

“In many cases we are seeing continual improvement,” said Dr Gejda.

Students in third grade have been making constant improvement on their CMT scores over the last three years, as Dr Gejda’s slide presentation showed the board during the meeting. The third grade class was also the only grade to score higher in writing than in any of the other scored areas this year.

All grades, but third and seventh grade, scored higher in math when compared to the other two categories of reading and writing. Seventh grade students had higher scores in reading than any of the other categories.

Dr Gejda’s presentation compared the scores of Newtown’s schools to the data collected from throughout the state. When compared to the statewide scores, Newtown’s schools score higher in every category. The scores in science can not yet be compared, because they are too new to the CMT.

“We want to see if we can look at writing a little more closely,” said Dr Gejda. Scores in writing were not consistent across the grades that took the CMT. Students in grades five and six have been gradually achieving lower scores over the last three years of the test, but other grades show scores that range from high to low. Scores in writing showed the least amount of improvement overall, with the exception of students in the third grade.

Other areas of interest Dr Gejda pointed out for the board during the meeting on Monday include a comparative list of students in towns similar to Newtown. The state’s website, www.csde.state.ct.us, allows people to compare the results by showing where each grade ranks in the different categories when compared to the other towns.

Dr Gejda said the data collected from the CMT results from Newtown students is being used to assess where the town could make improvements, but she said it is important not to draw direct conclusions from the results. There are a lot of complications that could alter the results, according to Dr Gejda, and the scores do not point to any one thing in particular.

“We are also thinking about [the results of the CMT] for when the students get to the high school,” she said. “We have to think about the K–12 piece.”

Students who take the CMT have also been tested to make sure schools are meeting the requirements for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Across the state 60 percent of schools met the performance standards, which are designed to gradually increase each year. The Adequate Yearly Progress report uses both the CMT and the CAPT results to follow student achievements in the schools.

The Adequate Yearly Progress report monitors the students’ scores in math, reading, and writing, to see if they meet certain standards. Scores are divided into five levels and students have to score at least the fourth level to meet state requirements.

The only school in the Newtown School District that did not meet the requirements of the Adequate Yearly Progress report was Reed Intermediate School, but the school is not enforced to meet the requirements. This did not count against Newtown’s scores, according to Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson. She said Reed Intermediate missed the scores for special needs students, but other students performed at or above the levels needed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress report.

According to the state, more than 280,000 students participated across the state in the Connecticut Mastery Test and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test combined.

A total of 408 schools did not meet the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 standard, which is 40 percent of the schools in Connecticut and about 100 more schools than the number of schools that did not meet the standards last year, according to state education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan when he announced the findings of the test this month.