Did you know about the CAT?

Did you know that today's kindergarteners will never take a CMT? 

The CMT, or Connecticut Mastery Test, is the standardized test currently taken by all students in Grades 3 - 8 in Reading, Writing, and Math.  Students in Grades 5 and 8 also take a Science CMT.  The test takes place in March in all our public schools; test results are provided to districts in July and generally made available to the public sometime during the summer.  Students are sorted into five bands of achievement: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, Goal, and Mastery.  The results are used to adjust curriculum and instruction.

But, a new test is on the way.  It will be a Computer Adaptive Test, or a CAT.  It's being developed by a 31 state consortium called the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium, of which Connecticut is a 'governing' partner. 

An 'adaptive test' is not a new concept, as IQ testing which has been around for over a century, uses the same principles.  The 'new' part of thsi test will be the computer delivery of the questions and scoring of the answers.  The test begins with a 43,000 item bank, and every students will experience a different set of questions.  From the first question, the test will branch itself up or down in skill level depending upon whether or not the student gets the right answer.  It will continue to branch up or down based on the student's answers.  In the end, the test will accurately determine each student's achievement level, but every student will have answered 1/2 of the questions right and 1/2 of the questions wrong.

The CAT will change how students are prepared for testing; but its alignment with the new Common Core State Standards will change our curriculum and instruction models.  In addition, we will need to ensure that all students are thoroughly comfortable with computer-based questions.  They will need to know, for example, that when a word is underlined, you can click on it to read its definition.  They will need to know how to drag and drop and what to do with an item such as the one below, which requires you click on the 'sound' symbol.

I had the pleasure of presenting an overview of the SBAC and the new CAT to the Orange Board of Education this past month, so your BOE understands how our current decisions about curriculum and instruction will need to address our students future needs.   The CAT will be here by 2015, which is closer than we think!  If you would like to view the full presentation, see below.

On the Horizon: Sueprintendent's Report to the BOE

View more presentations from Lynn McMullin