LHK improves reading scores on CMTs

FALLS VILLAGE — Lee H. Kellogg School Principal Maria Bulson said that scores from the most recent administration of the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT) underscored the school’s ongoing efforts to improve student reading skills.

The tests were taken in spring by students in grades three to eight. Results were released last month.

“This is our third year with a goal to improve reading, and we have,†said Bulson. “It’s one area where I feel we’ve made the greatest gains.â€

With a school as small as Kellogg, CMT scores for all but the sixth and eighth grades are not even posted on the cmtreports.com Web site. And those scores show that 90.5 percent of the sixth grade and 82.6 percent of the eighth grade testing above proficiency in reading — the benchmark for progress as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

But for the number testing above the goal — a state measure — the results are not quite as high: 85.7 percent and 78.3 percent, respectively.

But with the small testing samples, the results can be misleading. Bulson said there are six students  in the current sixth grade. If, for example, one third of the class — a mere two students — are either in special education or are “gifted,†the results are skewed.

“Some students are in special education and they are not able to make the goal because they are not allowed to take the test for their ability level instead of their grade level,†Bulson added.

So with a school as small as Kellogg the tests are seen “as a good tool to use,†but administrators and teachers are careful not to attach too much importance to the scores.

“With our little school we have to look at each child,†said Bulson, and when a student is underachieving — and has not been identified as a special education child — the job is to find out why, and what can be done to support the child.

And as a school, “We look at where we have a weakness and we work on that.â€