Somers Prepares for Connecticut Mastery Tests

As Connecticut Mastery Test time approaches, the Somers school district is looking back at past years and is starting to prepare for this year's tests.

Looking at the Strategic School Profile for the 2010-11 year, Superintendent of Schools Maynard Suffredini said that while it is year-old data, there were some positive trends to be seen.

“There were some areas that we are still working on and trying to affect some changes,” he said. “But overall, when we do the comparisons, we are scoring fairly well. We’ve had some gains at the , we’ve had some gains at the . Areas where we’ve had some concerns with still are a couple grade levels at the elementary and grade six at the middle school. Overall, we have noticed improvements, so we’re going in the right direction. We just have to make bigger gains now.”

He said that for the last couple of years, the district has developed an action plan at each building to address areas that need to be addressed.

One way that the district is addressing areas of concern is by re-allotting social studies and science time at the to increase CMT preparation studies.

“We’re looking at time and learning, so we want to increase the amount of time – like at the elementary school, spending more time in the literacy component reading, and then the mathematics as well,” Suffredini said. “Not that we’re cutting out social studies or science, we’re re-allotting the time. We haven’t eliminated that. In the areas where we’re testing, we’ve tried to increase instructional time prior to the test period. So whatever has been the tradeoff, kids will pick up after the test period – so there’s that strategy involved as well.” 

Suffredini said that he is really pleased with what is being seen this year in terms of the growth in the standardized tests the kids have been given thus far in reading.

“There’s been some really good growth in that,” he said. “We’ve made a big push to get parents actively involved, spend time at home reading, and what we’re seeing is a significant increase in the amount of reading outside of school that kids are doing. It’s going in the right direction.”

Parents are an important piece of the puzzle, and while there have been some who have pushed back, most are reacting positively.

“I think what we’ve seen is, there are more parents buying into what’s being done in school, and realize the importance of them reinforcing at home what is being done in school,” Suffredini said.

The CMTs begin next month and children in grades three through eight will be tested in reading, writing, and mathematics. The fifth and eighth graders will also be tested in science.

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