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Darien officials recommend ending STAMP testing at middle school, keep test at high school
Summary
After an eight-year review, Darien educators recommended phasing out the online STAMP language proficiency test at the middle school level, keeping it at the high school for Seal of Biliteracy qualification. Staff cited instructional time loss, cost and more meaningful in-house assessments as reasons for the change.
Darien Board of Education curriculum staff recommended on June 4 that the district stop administering the STAMP language-proficiency exam at Middlesex Middle School (MMS) while continuing to use it at Darien High School (DHS) for students seeking the Seal of Biliteracy.
The district review, presented by Scott Webster and middle-school teacher Kathy Chaffee, concluded the test has served as a useful snapshot but is expensive, time-consuming and often duplicative of quarterly classroom-based assessments that better reflect student growth. “Each test costs about $23 per student and takes an average of 2 to 3 weeks to administer at MMS, including practice and makeups, which is disruptive to the curriculum,” Webster said.
Why it matters: STAMP is one recognized route to earn a Seal of Biliteracy and is already used at DHS; continuing it there preserves a standardized path to the credential. At the middle-school level, district staff argued the test…
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