diff --git a/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/StreamingContextSuite.scala b/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/StreamingContextSuite.scala
index ea4c1d4e21d67..6cce280250eec 100644
--- a/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/StreamingContextSuite.scala
+++ b/streaming/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/StreamingContextSuite.scala
@@ -346,7 +346,6 @@ class StreamingContextSuite
     logInfo("==================================\n\n\n")
     ssc = new StreamingContext(sc, Milliseconds(100))
     var runningCount = 0
-    SlowTestReceiver.receivedAllRecords = false
     // Create test receiver that sleeps in onStop()
     val totalNumRecords = 15
     val recordsPerSecond = 1
@@ -358,6 +357,9 @@ class StreamingContextSuite
     }
     ssc.start()
     ssc.awaitTerminationOrTimeout(500)
+    eventually(timeout(10.seconds), interval(10.millis)) {
+      assert(SlowTestReceiver.initialized)
+    }
     ssc.stop(stopSparkContext = false, stopGracefully = true)
     logInfo("Running count = " + runningCount)
     assert(runningCount > 0)
@@ -949,6 +951,7 @@ class SlowTestReceiver(totalRecords: Int, recordsPerSecond: Int)
   extends Receiver[Int](StorageLevel.MEMORY_ONLY) with Logging {
 
   var receivingThreadOption: Option[Thread] = None
+  @volatile var receivedAllRecords = false
 
   def onStart() {
     val thread = new Thread() {
@@ -958,17 +961,18 @@ class SlowTestReceiver(totalRecords: Int, recordsPerSecond: Int)
           Thread.sleep(1000 / recordsPerSecond)
           store(i)
         }
-        SlowTestReceiver.receivedAllRecords = true
+        receivedAllRecords = true
         logInfo(s"Received all $totalRecords records")
       }
     }
     receivingThreadOption = Some(thread)
     thread.start()
+    SlowTestReceiver.initialized = true
   }
 
   def onStop() {
     // Simulate slow receiver by waiting for all records to be produced
-    while (!SlowTestReceiver.receivedAllRecords) {
+    while (!receivedAllRecords) {
       Thread.sleep(100)
     }
     // no clean to be done, the receiving thread should stop on it own
@@ -976,7 +980,7 @@ class SlowTestReceiver(totalRecords: Int, recordsPerSecond: Int)
 }
 
 object SlowTestReceiver {
-  var receivedAllRecords = false
+  var initialized = false
 }
 
 /** Streaming application for testing DStream and RDD creation sites */