Building Stamina is Key for Tackling the Connecticut Mastery Test

held a workshop at the Wednesday night for parents of children gearing up to take the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs).

“Children need stamina for reading and stamina for writing — but they can’t do it alone,” Mary Jennings, director of literacy and social studies at Stamford Public Schools, told the crowded room.

The workshop, held by the Office of Family Engagement, focused on reading and writing skills that are assessed for elementary students on the CMT exams.

“Many of you are wondering what you can do for your child at home,” Jennings said. “If your youngster is reading a book to you at home, go deeper into the book to see how you child is reading or thinking. You are your child’s first teacher.”

The CMT exams are right around the corner, beginning March 1. They measure mathematics, science, reading and writing for students across Connecticut in grades 3-8. The Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) exams assess students in 10th grade.

Jennings distributed reading samples that students in the third grade would expect to receive. Each section is timed and students have to read many passages that get increasingly more complex and detail oriented.

“Stamina is key to being successful,” Jennings said. “Students fall off when they’re tired or distracted and they end up circling anything.”

“I thought the workshop was very comprehensive,” Crystal Mayo, a parent of a second grade student at , said. “I like that she broke down every section and there was something we could physically take home to review. You can also understand the rubric so that when you’re working with your child or seeing their classwork, you can gauge for yourself where they’re at and where they need to go.”

Stamford Public Schools reported that its scores for the spring 2010 CMTs indicated improvement across all content areas, grades, and demographic groups over the last five years. The greatest gains were seen in mathematics, where more than 10 percentage points were achieved in numerous grades in the Asian American, Black, White, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities categories. Black students in sixth grade in particular improved by 24 percentage points over the last five years.  

This is the first family workshop for CMT preparation this year, although Beryl Williams, school and family resource facilitator for the Office of Family Engagement, hopes to add another workshop for math and science preparation at the end of February.