Volume 18, Issue 17
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
District 13 students excel on 2011 CMTs By Mark Dionne Special to the Town Times The results of the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs), released in July and available online, show that Regional School District 13 (RSD13) continued to perform well compared to the Connecticut average. The CMTs score students in grades 3 through 8 in categories of math, reading and writing. Science is included as a subject category in grades 5 and 8. Student scores in each category are reported in levels as Advanced, Goal, Proficient, Basic and Below Basic. One of the methods used to compare schools and districts is the Goal range. As the Connecticut Board of Education explains, “The Goal range includes the Advanced and Goal levels. Scoring in the Goal range is a challenging, yet reasonable, expectation for Connecticut students.” Examining different grades and categories using the Goal range reveals D13 students outperforming the state average. For example, 85.4 percent of grade 8 D13 students reached the Goal range in math, compared to
66.8 percent of state students. In reading, 86.5 percent of grade 6 D13 students hit the Goal range, over 10 percentage points higher than the state average. The district students also tested well in the science category. Over 76 percent of grade 5 D13 students reached the Goal range, 16 percentage points higher than the state average. In grade 8, 84 percent reached the Goal range, over 20 percentage points higher than the state average. In a phone interview, Superintendent Sue Viccaro said, “I’m never satisfied with where we are until 100 percent are where they should be.” Viccaro noted that only school-wide, not individual, results have been released. “We can’t do an in-depth reaction until we get individual results.” The gap between D13 students and the state consistently grew larger in the older grades. A six-point difference in writing for grade 3 became a 22 point gap for grade 8. These patterns could be read as the benefits of a consistently high-quality education in Durham and Middlefield.
“As our kids move toward [grades] 6, 7 and 8, the scores go up,” Viccaro said. Typically in D13, the older grades score around 85 percent in the Goal range. Those scores, Viccaro adds, are “not as high as I would like them to be at the younger grades.” Viccaro also cites the reading subject category as an area of interest, noting a long-standing concern with reading consultants at the elementary level and remedial reading help at the high school level. Acting commissioner for Connecticut’s Department of Education George Coleman noted positive results at the state level, saying in a press release, “It is encouraging to see that our public schools are making progress by increasing the numbers of students who are moving into the Proficient level of performance and from the Proficient level into the Goal level.” Connecticut’s Department of Education presents the results from 2006 to the present in one database. In 2006 the CMT requirement was expanded to include all stuSee CMT, page 16
DMIAAB announces composter project DMIAAB currently has funding for 25 of each Garden Gourmet and Green Cone style composters. Sales of the first units will contribute to the purchase of more, depending on demand.
In this issue ... Calendar............................4 Durham Briefs................15 Middlefield Briefs...........14 Obituary..........................20 Sports..........................20-24
By offering a deep discount to the residents of DurhamMiddlefield, it is hoped that DMIAAB can establish a broad-based program that will ultimately improve our soil, reduce the amount of municipal solid waste, and reduce the costs at our shared transfer station, which will save tax dollars. If the program expands, we would like to make forms available for pre-sales, and a pick-up site in Middlefield will be established.
First come, first served — must be picked up, must show proof of residency. Sunday, Aug. 7, at 11 a.m. at the Durham Volunteer Ambulance Corps building at 205 Main St. The Garden Gourmet, at $27.50, is a traditional above ground bin composter; the Green Cone, at $47.50, is a digester that processes meat, fish, bones, cooked vegetables, dairy, etc. in a chamber below ground level. Make checks payable to DMIAAB.
Friday, August 5, 2011
I spy a lone sunflower...
...and a hot air balloon The sunflower maze at Lyman Orchards, in the shape of a butterfly, opened on July 30, with 1,000 people enjoying its three acres. One dollar from every ticket goes to the CT Children’s Medical Center. The maze, now in its fifth year, will be open until August 28. A tethered hot air balloon gave a bird’seye view of the panorama to about 100 people on July 31 from 9 until 11 a.m. All proceeds from this went to the CT Children’s Medical Center. See more sunflower pictures on page 16. Photos by Diana Carr