Connecticut Mastery Test (getting ready for third grade)

CMT PRIMER

What are the CMT’s used for anyway?

Since 1985, Connecticut public schools have been administering a test to nearly every 4th, 6th, and 8th grader (this year it expanded to 3rd – 8th). The test is an assessment of reading, writing and mathematics. Each student will be compared to an objective standard that the state has set for that grade level. This is actually an important distinction: most of the other standardized tests that you and I may have taken in grade school were designed to compare one student to another. The reports come back telling you that you are “smarter” than 52% of students nation-wide. Questions in those tests are designed to discriminate between students and get progressively harder.

The CMT is also rigorous, but everything on the test is based on what we have decided as a state are the most important learning objectives for 3rd through 8th graders. It is also not all multiple choice. Students are asked to demonstrate how they are getting the answers they are, write the reasons why they have chosen a particular answer, and create charts and graphs. They are also asked to write on a particular topic, which is then scored as a first draft of a piece of prose. The student’s answers are then compared to what we expect students to know. The questions are chosen based on what will best demonstrate that knowledge. Your student’s report will say in both general and specific terms how well your child was able to demonstrate his or her knowledge of many of our grade level objectives.

That is not to say that I am completely satisfied with the CMT. It takes 7-9 hours of our instructional time and still relies too heavily on multiple-choice answers. It is still only a snap-shot of what that particular student was able to demonstrate on that particular day. The writing section does not take into account many of the attributes of good writing that we also want our students to pay attention to: spelling, punctuation, legibility. And there is always a danger in our zeal to make sure students are well prepared that we, as teachers, make choices in instruction that do not call for creativity and deep-thinking. (Though most research says that the more creativity and opportunities for students to think that we use in our classroom, the better students will do on mastery tests.)

With the amount of effort, energy and money put into the CMT, we are left with the question: What should we do with the information we get? Our results come back in the summer, so we can’t use the information to make instructional decisions for individual children. However, we can use it to take a look at where our instruction is compared to our district goal for at least 80% of our students at the state goal. We then can set school goals for improvement, change our curriculum materials if necessary and plan professional development opportunities for our teachers. We can track our school’s trends over time to see how the changes we make are affecting the school and look at an individual’s progress toward meeting state curriculum objectives.

The Connecticut Mastery Test is a blunt instrument. Our best practices for improvement with individual students will always be a caring teacher working with students and using her or his own assessments to monitor and adjust for each child. Yet, the CMT is also a powerful agent for pointing us in the right direction so that we ensure that our students are ready for the next level of instruction.

CMT Reading Strands including types of questions asked

Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) samples and practice items for students

CMT Math Blueprint including vocabulary list and types of items tested

CMT Editing & Revising Blueprint including types of items tested