UPDATE: Middletown Makes 'Great Strides' in CMT, CAPT Reading

Update: July 25, 5:47 p.m.

City students have increased their writing and reading skills, based on the Connecticut Mastery Test scores, according to a statement from the Middletown Board of Education.

Marco Gaylord prepared a summary released Wednesday, in which he said, "the progress in reading in grades 3-8 over the past six years is reflected for the first time by a significant improvement this year in the CAPT reading scores for grade 10.

"Tenth-graders in 2012 improved 6.8 percent in proficient (while the state declined 1 percent) and 12.1 percent at goal (while the state increased only 2.7 percent)."

The city's fifth-graders hit an all-time testing high in 2012, Gaylord reports, with "significant progress in writing, achieving 80 percent at proficient at all grade levels. Middletown exceeded the state average for both proficient and goal in grades 3-5.

"Grade five achieved 90.4 percent of proficient. This is Middletown's first 90 percent," Gaylord wrote, concluding that, "district fifth-graders continue to show the highest achievement in mathematics."

Patricia Charles will take over as superintendent of schools on Aug. 1.

"Middletown Public Schools' CMT and CAPT data show definite progress over time," she says. "Of particular note, the grade three reading scores exceeded the state percentage at goal. ... Mathematics gains of 7 percentage points over last year are noted in grade six, while the percent of students at goal across the state declined in that grade. ... I look forward to starting on Aug. 1 and looking at the CMT data in greater depth by subgroup."

Charles says she's happy with the 10th-grade results as well.

"There are also promising gains in our CAPT performance when disaggregated by subgroup. Particularly encouraging are gains for our black or African-American and free and reduced lunch subgroups," she says.

Original story:

Middletown Public Schools students fared middling at this year's — at or slightly above last year's results in many cases. And the scores in Middletown were up almost entirely across the board.

Writing scores for grades three to five were at or above the state average on the CMTs; all other grades were below or just at the state average for all grades in math, reading, writing and science.

The most significant strides in Middletown were in the 10th-grade CAPT results.

"Overall, we're pleased," said Interim Superintendent of Schools David Larson. "In most instances, the scores have gone up. I know there's a few places where they have gone down a bit." Larson is waiting for the results to be compiled into a report by Marco Gaylord.

Middletown Board of Education Chair Eugene Nocera has seen only the preliminary data. A full Power Point report will be presented to the public at the Aug. 21 board meeting.

"Like every year, there were definately some positives because test improvement is always kind of a moving target," Nocera said. "We definitely made some improvements in the CMTs and CAPTs but the board hasn't seen any of it yet."

For CMT results, "from 2006 to the last test analysis, we've made progress in proficiency and goal," Nocera said. "The same is true of the CAPTs, we've made steady improvement in both reading and math; and we continue to look at the achievement gap."

In releasing the CMT and CAPT test scores for individual districts this year, the state Department of Education said that CMT scores — given to students in grades 3 through 8 — improved incrementally while CAPT performance — administered to 10th-graders and required for graduation — was mixed.

"While student performance increased in all content areas when compared to the CAPT baseline year of 2007, it decreased in some areas when compared to last year," the department said in a news release. "As compared to 2011, performance increased slightly in writing, remained relatively constant in science and reading, and decreased in mathematics."

Change is on the way. By the 2014-15 school year, the current Connecticut Mastery Test taken by third- through eighth-graders will be replaced by a new, more personalized online testing system, the Hartford Courant reports.

Middletown CMT test scores

Middletown CAPT Scores