Region 13 Test Scores Show Mixed Results

While Connecticut Mastery Test results released this month show that students in Regional School District 13 scored higher, on average, than their state-wide counterparts, Superintendent Susan Viccaro would prefer to focus on improving scores.

This fall, teachers in District 13 will begin using INFORM, a web-based program that tracks student progress - from test scores to attendance - using a comprehensive database.

"It's really going to allow teachers to target specific weaknesses with kids in a much more efficient and organized way," Viccaro explained.

"We've never had that capability before and we're going to have it this year, so I'm really excited about that," added Viccaro, who said administrators had been trained on the new system Tuesday. Teachers will receive INFORM training at the start of the school year.

"It's going to give teachers kind of a leg up that they haven't had before in having access to the information easily. It will just be at their fingertips," she said.

As for as the district's overall test scores, Viccaro cautioned that the CMT's are just one of many measuring tools used by the district.

"It's one snapshot in time. It certainly gets a lot of scrutiny," she said. "There's a lot of other good instructional practices going on."

The test assess 250,000 students state-wide 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.

The 2011 test scores show mixed results among the various grade levels in the district.

For example, eighth grade students made significant improvement in writing and science scores. In 2010, 89 percent of eighth graders were at or above proficiency (see editor's note) on the writing test, while in 2011 the number jumped to nearly 94 percent. Roughly 87 percent of students were at or above proficiency in science in 2010, a figure that increased to 93 percent in 2011.

Meanwhile, fourth graders' test scores fell in math, reading and writing. In 2010, nearly 97 percent of students were at or above proficiency in math. In 2011, the number dropped below 90 percent.

(For scores at each grade level, click on the attached PDFs)

Viccaro said principals in the district will be scrutinizing the test scores more closely and reporting back to her in the fall.

"I'm never satisfied," she said. "It's about trying to move the kids who are in the proficient band, into the goal band. That's what we focus on."

Editor's Note: The CMT has five levels of achievement: Below Basic (Level 1), Basic (Level 2), Proficient (Level 3), Goal (Level 4), and Advanced (Level 5).