The Connecticut Academic Performance Test

1. The Connecticut Academic Performance Test Third Generation Overview Reading

2. Visit CTREPORTS.COM Visit this site to find local, district and state data disaggregated and for the entire population and make comparisons within a generation and to other towns and high schools within Connecticut.

3. CAPT Overview Connecticut General Statutes • sec. 10-14n • Mandates Statewide Assessment • Includes Grade 10 Public School Students • Not Sole Criterion for Graduation, Promotion • Certification of Mastery • On Permanent School Record, Transcript • sec. 10-223a • Include Results in Graduation Requirements

4. Skills Checklist • For Significantly Cognitively Impaired • Requires Intensive Individualized Instruction in Multiple Settings to Acquire, Maintain, or Generalize Skills Students Without Disabilities Typically Develop Outside of a School Setting • Instructional Program May Include Functional / Life Skills Component

5. Components of the Assessment

6. Content Area Strategies Success is achieved throughYear-Long Quality Instructional Practices* See your content area CAPT handbook for more information.

7. Reading Writing Using Evidence Analyzing Information Making Inferences Using Data Graphing Real World Problems Make Connections Across Subject Areas CAPT Tasks for all disciplines include:

8. CAPT shown to be a Predictor of Future Success Success is defined by: • Interest in College • Time Elapsed Before Starting College • Reduced Number of College Remediation Courses • Increased # of Credits Taken Per Semester • Number of College Courses Taken & Passed • College GPA • Attainment of Post-Secondary Degree Click for the study, First Steps: An Evaluation of the Success of Connecticut Students Beyond High School.

9. 3rd Generation Handbooks Are Available Online They are subject specific and include: • Changes • CAPT Standards • Test Blueprint • 10 Practical Teaching Strategies • Released Items

10. Reading Across the Disciplines RtL = independently scored by two readers

11. Reading Across the Disciplines Changes Reading for Information • Every Other Paragraph Numbered in Articles

12. Focused Holistic Scoring • U UNDERSTANDING: • Plot, Conflict, Events, Actions, Characters, Setting.(Ask questions and make predictions; comment on the plot and characters.) • What are your thoughts and questions about the story? • I INTERPRETATION: • Theme, Message, Meaning, Moral.(Reflecting, thinking, reacting to the message of the story, author’s purpose.) • How does the main character change? Why is this specific quote important to the story? Conflict? Character? Theme? • C CONNECTION: • Associations, Comparisons, Connections.(Compare the themes and conflicts of the story to To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men or any novel or short story student may have read: life experience, movies, stories, etc...) • What does the story say about people in general? • S STANCE: • Judgments of Style, Literary Devices, Quality. (Make judgments about why the story is good using evidence from the text.) - How successful was the author in creating a good piece of literature?

13. Mathematics The Mathematics test assesses how well students can compute and estimate, solve problems, and communicate their understanding. The test focuses on applying important mathematics concepts to solve problems that are relevant in everyday life.

14. Four Content Strands • Algebraic Reasoning: Patterns & Functions • Numerical and Proportional Reasoning • Geometry and Measurement • Working with Data: Probability & Statistics

15. Test Format • The test is administered in two 75-minute testing sessions. • There are 24 grid-in questions that require students to compute an answer or solve a problem and then bubble the solution into a grid. • There are 8 open-ended questions that typically require students to solve mathematical problems by showing their work or explaining their reasoning and/or the procedures they used.

16. Materials & Resources • Students are provided with a ruler, formula sheet, and a calculator during the test. • Released items and example solutions from previous years may be found at: http://www.csde.state.ct.us/public/cedar/assessment/capt/released-items.htm

17. Connecticut Academic Performance Test  Writing Across the Disciplines  The Writing Across the Disciplines section is comprised of two tests that assess students’writing skills:  Interdisciplinary  Writing and Editing & Revising.

18. Connecticut Academic Performance Test Writing Across the Disciplines The Interdisciplinary Writing section of the test requires students to apply critical thinking skills they have gained through their social studies, science, mathematics, language arts, the arts, and other disciplines to an important contemporary issue.

19. Recent Persuasive Writing Topics Grade 10 Should 9/11 be a national holiday?  Should cell phone use be banned in schools?  Should the voting age be raised from 18 to 21?

20. HOW IS STUDENT WRITING EVALUATED? • POSITION- Did the writer take a clear position on the issue? • SUPPORT- Did the writer support her/his position with accurate and relevant information from the source material? • SOURCES- Did the writer use information from the two sources provided? • Organization- Did the writer organize his/her ideas in a logical & effective manner? • Clarity & Fluency- Did the writer express his/her ideas clearly and fluently using his/her own words?

25. Test Strategies for All Disciplines • Be sure that your children get plenty of sleep at all times, but most importantly, the nights before CAPT testing. • Ensure that they have a good breakfast the morning of CAPT.

26. Strategies • Encourage your child to read each problem/question carefully. • Encourage your child to pace themselves. • If they do not understand a problem, move onto the next question and return later to the missed problem/question. In reading, answer the open-ended questions completely, and read the multiple choice carefully. • If students take notes during reading, they will understand the text better and then have notes to refer to when answering questions.

27. Strategies • Your child should review/reread their answers and make sure they have completely answered each question. • Encourage your child to answer every question. Even if they don’t know how to get the final answer, they should show their work or explain parts of the solution they do know. • In reading, encourage the use of textual evidence from the story to connect to real life or other stories. This will get more points because they can fully explain their opinion about the story.

28. Parents/guardians should: • Stress the lifelong importance of the skills and knowledge that CAPT testing measures. • Stress the relationship between academic achievement and future opportunities. • Ask your child about their scores on the practice CAPT assessments given in their classes throughout the school year.