There's no reason to load anything but test for the database.yml

test/helper.rb

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
 FIXTURES_DIR = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "fixtures") 
 config = YAML::load(IO.read(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/database.yml'))
 ActiveRecord::Base.logger = Logger.new(File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/debug.log")
-ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(config[ENV['RAILS_ENV'] || 'test'])
+ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(config['test'])
 
 def rebuild_model options = {}
   ActiveRecord::Base.connection.create_table :dummies, :force => true do |table|