The Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) is the standard assessment administered to students in Grades 3 through 8. Students are assessed in the content areas of reading, mathematics, writing and science (Grades 5 and 8). Reports of individual student achievement relative to performance standards in each of these content areas are provided to the school districts and parents/guardians of each student tested. The CMT provides information about achievement that is used for many purposes including:
- setting high expectations and standards for student achievement;
- testing a comprehensive range of academic skills;
- disseminating useful test achievement information about students, schools and districts;
- identifying students in need of intervention; assessing equitable educational opportunities;
- and monitoring student progress in Grades 3 through 8 over time.
You can find more information about the CMT at:
http://www.csde.state.ct.us/public/cedar/assessment/cmt/cmt.htm
Who Participates in CMT?
Students enrolled in public school in Connecticut are required to take the CMT in Grades 3 through 8. Since 1985, the CMT has assessed essential mathematics, reading and writing skills that students are expected to master. The content of the test is based on The Connecticut Curriculum Frameworks. State and federal laws require that all students participate in statewide tests such as the CMT.
Students who are English Language Learners (ELL) and who are enrolled in a U.S. school for the first time for 10 months or less may be exempted from the reading and writing portions of the CMT. All other ELL students must take the grade-level test with accommodations, if necessary.
Most students enrolled in special education are tested on the grade-level test with accommodations, if necessary. Students in special education who have significant cognitive impairments are assessed with the CMT Skills Checklist, which is an alternate assessment designed specifically for this population. Parents whose children take the CMT Skills Checklist receive a CMT Skills Checklist results folder that contains the child’s CMT Skills Checklist Student Report, a copy of the CMT Skills Checklist, and a copy of the CMT Skills Checklist Performance Level Descriptors.
What Scores Are Reported?
Overall scores in mathematics, reading and writing for your child are reported in scale score units. The scale scores for each test area range from 100 to 400. Within the scale score range, five levels of performance have been established for each of the content areas. These five levels are: Advanced, Goal, Proficient, Basic and Below Basic. The goal range is composed of students who score at the two highest levels, Advanced and Goal. Scoring in the goal range is a challenging, yet reasonable, expectation for Connecticut students.
Mathematics
Your child’s total Mathematics score is reported as well as a score relative to the mastery criteria for each content strand. Results for the total Mathematics test are reported relative to state standards. The Mathematics test assesses students’ mastery of basic mathematics skills and concepts along with their ability to solve realistic problems. The specific mathematics content strands (e.g., place value, basic facts) are listed on the enclosed CMT Student Report.
The Mathematics test is administered in two one-hour sessions in Grades 3 and 4, and three one-hour sessions in Grades 5 through 8. The test includes a combination of multiple-choice, grid-in (Grades 5 through 8 only), and short-answer questions. Multiple-choice questions require students to identify the correct answer among four options. The grid-in questions require students to compute an answer or solve a problem, write the correct answer into boxes, and then fill in the matching bubble below each box. The short-answer questions require students to solve mathematical problems, show their work, and explain or justify their reasoning and/or the procedure(s) they used.
Reading
Your child’s reading score is a combination of scores from two Reading tests, the Degrees of Reading Power® and Reading Comprehension. Each test accounts for 50 percent of the total reading score. Results for the total reading test are reported relative to state standards.
The Degrees of Power® (DRP) test assesses your child’s understanding of what he or she has read. Students read nonfiction passages with missing words and then select appropriate words to complete the text. Students do not need to be familiar with the subject matter of the passages in order to supply the missing words. Additionally, all answer choices are common words. Students in Grades 3 and 4 answer 42 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes testing time. Students in Grades 5 through 8 have 45 minutes to answer 49 multiple-choice questions. A DRP unit score is included on your child’s report.
Additional information about your child’s DRP unit score may be found in the CMT Interpretive Guide.
The Comprehension test assesses your child’s ability to read and understand both fiction and nonfiction passages. The Reading Comprehension test is administered in two 45-minute sessions in Grades 3 through 8. The test includes a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer questions.
Multiple-choice questions require students to identify the correct answer from four options and short-answer questions require students to provide a written response.
A total score for the Reading Comprehension test is reported, as well as a score relative to the mastery criteria for the four content strands: Forming a General Understanding, Developing Interpretation, Making Reader/Text Connections, and Examining the Content and Structure. Information regarding what it means to master these four content strands is described below:
Forming a General Understanding
Students who master this content strand demonstrate a basic understanding of the general content of written work typically found in grade-level text. Generally, these students can determine the main idea or theme and identify important characters, settings, events and details. They can effectively select and use relevant information to summarize a written work.
Developing Interpretation
Students who master this content strand can effectively interpret and explain what they have read. Generally, these students can draw conclusions about an author’s purpose and use information from the text to draw and support their conclusions. They can also identify an author’s use of text organizational patterns.
Making Reader/Text Connections
Students who master this content strand can connect or associate the ideas in a written work to their own lives. Generally, these students can make connections between a text and outside experiences and knowledge, and can select and use relevant information from the text to write a personal response to the written work.
Examining the Content and Structure
Students who master this content strand can respond critically to what they have read and make judgments about the text’s quality and themes. Generally, these students can analyze and evaluate the author’s craft and use of literary devices. These students are able to select and use relevant information from the text to extend or evaluate the written work.
Writing
Your child’s Writing score is based on a combination of scores from two Writing tests, Direct Assessment of Writing and Editing & Revising. The Direct Assessment of Writing accounts for 60 percent of your child’s Writing score, and 40 percent is attributed to the Editing & Revising test. Results for the total Writing test are reported relative to state standards.
The Direct Assessment DAW) assesses how well students can communicate ideas in a coherent, elaborated, and organized way. The Direct Assessment of Writing requires students to draft a piece of writing in response to a given topic. Students in Grades 3 and 4 write a story. In Grades 5 and 6, students write an expository piece to provide an explanation or description. In Grades 7 and 8, students take a position on a topic and write to convince the reader of their position. Students in Grades 3 through 8 have 45 minutes to complete this test.
Student responses to the Direct Assessment of Writing are scored holistically, which means that trained scorers evaluate the overall effectiveness of the response, taking into consideration the characteristics that distinguish good writing. The emphasis in scoring is on how well students develop and communicate their ideas. Errors in grammar and punctuation do not affect a student’s score as long as the scorers can understand the response.
Copies of your child’s actual response to the CMT Direct Assessment of Writing test will be available in the fall from your child’s school district.
Additional information about your child’s DAW holistic score may be found in the CMT Interpretive Guide.
The Editing & Revising test assesses student skills in composing, revising and editing a written piece. Students read passages that are examples of student-style writing and then answer multiple-choice questions to correct common errors in organization, capitalization, punctuation, usage and spelling. Students in Grades 3 and 4 answer 32 multiple-choice questions. In Grades 5 and 6, students answer 36 multiple-choice questions. In Grades 7 and 8, students answer 40 multiple-choice questions. Students in each grade have 60 minutes for this test.
A total score for the Editing & Revising test is reported as well as a score relative to the mastery criteria for the two content strands: Composing/Revising and Editing. Information regarding what it means to master these two content strands follows:
Composing/Revising
Students who master this strand demonstrate the skills necessary to compose and revise a written work. Generally, these students demonstrate such skills as choosing effective content and organization for a written work, correctly revising sentence structure, and making appropriate word choices.
Editing
Students who master this strand demonstrate the skills necessary to edit a written piece. Generally, these students effectively demonstrate such editing skills as capitalization, punctuation, subject/verb agreement and selecting appropriate verb tense.
How are Tests Scored?
The CMT consists of a variety of question types (multiplechoice, grid-in, short-answer and extended-writing tasks). Student responses to these different types of questions are scored in different ways.
Multiple-choice: Multiple-choice questions appear on the Reading Comprehension test, the Degrees of Reading Power® test, the Editing & Revising test, and the Mathematics test. Responses to multiple-choice questions are scored as correct or incorrect by a machine that can determine which bubbles your child has filled in as answers to the questions.
Grid-in: Grid-in questions appear on the Mathematics tests for Grades 5 through 8. Responses to these questions are scored as correct or incorrect by a machine that can determine which bubbles your child has filled in as answers to the questions.
Short-answer: There are short-answer questions on the Reading Comprehension test and the Mathematics test. Scorers are trained to score student responses to these short-answer questions as correct, partially correct, or incorrect. The scoring procedures include built-in checks to ensure that scoring is consistent and accurate.
Extended-writing task: The Direct Assessment of Writing is an extended-writing task. Two trained scorers read each student’s writing and independently assign a score from 1 to 6. If the scores assigned by the two scorers differ by more than one point, a chief scorer reads the student’s response and resolves the discrepancy. The holistic riting score assigned to the student’s response is the total of the scores given by the two scorers; thus the scores range from 2 through 12.
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