CMT-CAPT Skills Checklist Technical Manual. - NAAC

• ensure that all students are taught by highly competent teachers and led byvisionary administrators;Purposes of the assessment systemTest scores can serve many purposes, however, foremost among these is to estimate astudent’s achievement relative to specific academic content standards. For more than twodecades Connecticut has assessed and reported on student academic performancestatewide as it relates to approved curriculum content. The state has developed andadopted a set of grade-level academic achievement standards for reading/language arts,mathematics and science for students in grades 3 through 8 who take the ConnecticutMastery Test and for students in grade 10 who take the Connecticut AcademicPerformance Test in reading/language arts, mathematics and science.Connecticut’s statewide testing program consists of four tests: the Connecticut MasteryTest (CMT), which is administered in Grades 3 through 8, the CMT Skills Checklistwhich is administered in Grades 3 through 8, the Connecticut Academic PerformanceTest (CAPT) which is administered in Grade 10 and the CAPT Skills Checklist which isadministered in Grade 10. Together these assessments help guide curriculum andinstruction in the direction that Connecticut educators believe is important. They alsopermit the measurement of progress toward the educational goals that have beenestablished for Connecticut students as reflected in the Connecticut CurriculumFrameworks and related Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE)publications.Specific purposes of the statewide CMT and CAPT testing program, including theCMT/CAPT Skills Checklist, are:• to set high expectations and standards for the achievement of all students;• to test a comprehensive range of academic skills;• to disseminate useful test achievement information about students, schoolsand districts;• to assess equitable educational opportunities; and• to continually monitor student progress in Grades 3 through 8 and Grade10.As with all forms of assessment, the central question regarding an alternate assessment isits purpose. A central tenet of IDEA is that special education must be directly related toschool reform efforts for all students. The question of an alternate assessment’s purpose,then, must be framed in the context of comprehensive educational reform efforts in whichschools are increasingly held accountable for clearly delineated outcomes. The purposeof an alternate assessment should mirror the purpose of the regular assessment. Thus, ifthe purpose of the regular assessment is to give schools a “report card” on what studentsare learning and suggest ways that learning can be improved, then the alternatevi