CMT Data Released

The state’s Department of Education says that student performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test is generally better than it was in 2010, continuing a trend of incremental improvement over previous years.

The CMT assesses approximately 250,000 students on their application of skills and knowledge in the academic content areas of mathematics, reading and writing in grades three through eight, and science in grades five and eight.

This year marks the sixth administration of the Fourth Generation CMT, which was first administered in March 2006. The March 2006 administration serves as a baseline year for examining changes in student performance over the course of the Fourth Generation.

“It is encouraging to see that our public schools are making progress by increasing the numbers of students who are moving into the Proficient level of performance and from the Proficient level into the Goal level,” acting education Commissioner George Coleman said. “However, our greatest challenges are ahead of us. We must accelerate our efforts to improve the outcomes for those students who are at risk of scoring below Proficient, while at the same time challenging all students to perform at higher levels.”

From 2006 to 2011, the percentage of grade 3 students who scored at or above Goal in reading increased from 54.4 percent to 58.4 percent, for an increase of four percentage points. This translates into an additional 1,640 students who were meeting Goal in reading in 2011 over the number meeting Goal in 2006.

In grade 8, the percentage of students who scored at Goal in reading increased from 66.7 percent in 2006 to 74.7 percent in 2011, for an increase of eight percentage points. This indicates that approximately 3,280 additional eighth graders met the state’s Goal standard for reading in 2011 than met Goal in 2006.

The percentage of students meeting Goal in reading has increased steadily over the Fourth Generation of the CMT from 2006 to 2011, and is at its highest point in 2011 in every grade except grade five.

The percentage of grade three students meeting Goal for mathematics in 2011 (63.3 percent) is seven percentage points higher than it was in 2006 (56.3 percent). As a result, approximately 2,870 more grade three students are meeting Goal in 2011 than did so in 2006.

For grade eight, 66.8 percent of CMT test-takers are meeting Goal in 2011, compared with 58.3 in 2006, for an increase of 8.5 percentage points. This translates into approximately 3,485 additional students within that grade who would have not met Goal in 2006.

Over the course of the Fourth Generation CMT, there have been steady increases in the percentage of students meeting Goal in mathematics in all six grades, with grades five, six and seven registering double- digit gains.

For grade three writing, the percentage of students scoring at Goal has remained relatively flat between 2006 and 2011 at 61.1 percent.

In grade eight, 64.8 percent of the CMT test-takers scored at Goal in 2011 compared with 62.4 percent in 2006, for an increase of 2.4 percentage points or, approximately, an additional 980 students meeting Goal in 2011.

Across the grades between 2006 and 2011, the percentage of students scoring at the Goal level in writing increased in grades four, five, six and eight, decreased in grade seven, and did not change in grade three.

CMT science has been administered in grades five and eight since 2008. In 2008, 55.2 percent of grade five students met Goal in science. By 2011, the percentage increased by five percentage points to 60.2 percent. This represents the equivalent of an additional 2,050 students meeting grade five Goal in science.

From 2008 to 2011, there was a 4.4 percentage point increase in grade five science performance at the Goal level, which accounts for approximately 1,800 additional students meeting Goal in 2011 than in 2008.

Local Results

In Ellington, only third graders at the Goal level and the eighth graders at both levels increased in reading over 2010.

In math, the Ellington students saw mixed results with some grades up and some grades down.

All grades except sixth saw generally good results in writing.

In science, both fifth and eighth graders saw increases over 2010.

In Somers, third, sixth, and eighth graders saw increases at both levels in reading.

In math, only fifth graders saw an increase at both levels.

In writing, third graders saw a large improvement at both levels. Sixth and eighth graders also did well in this area.

In science, Somers fifth and eighth graders saw mixed results with some levels and grades increasing, with others decreasing.

To see how other towns did last year, click here. For this year's results, click here.