Officials back new student assessment plan and No Child Left Behind waiver request

Fayneese Miller, chair of the State Board of Education. VTD/Josh Larkin

RANDOLPH – The Vermont Board of Education Tuesday gave the green light to a draft proposal that seeks a waiver from the controversial No Child Left Behind Act.

The unanimous vote was wrapped around a lot of discussion about forging a “Vermont way” in the 21st century to assess student progress and measure teacher effectiveness, using innovation, technology and the advantages that go with being a small state with a close-knit education community.

The board’s vote at Randolph Union High School came after a wide range of members in the education community mostly lent their backing to the waiver from the controversial and oft-disparaged NLCB law.

The waiver plan was spelled out in a 26-page document drafted by a design team panel represented by Deputy Education Commissioner Rae Ann Knopf.

“We support the waiver request unanimously,” said Dan French, president of the Vermont Superintendents Association. He said among 50 superintendents, the consensus was that NLCB was “harmful to education.” In his view, the state needs another way of assessing students’ progress in order to inspire “the next generation of leaders” in the education field.

Martha Allen, president of the Vermont NEA, which represents teachers, lent her support as well. Allen said teachers are “incredibly burdened” by social pressures on students and federal mandates. She welcomed the waiver because she said the structure of NLCB doesn’t encourage creativity or account for different teaching styles that keep students engaged.

Brent Kay, superintendent of the Orange Southwest Supervisory Union, said he did have concerns about how many details remain to be spelled out.

“I have a huge reservation about the waiver itself,” he said. “I think we don’t have much of a choice. It’s a sad situation.”

Steven Gross, a Middlebury professor with long involvement in Vermont education, told the board that he felt the waiver proposal was “too generic,” too “top-down” and too disconnected from the real causes of poor learning, which he said are tied to kids coming from disadvantaged families that struggle with inadequate housing, lack of food and employment, and poor health care.

NLCB, now almost a decade old, was never rewritten by Congress as planned four years ago. The Obama administration last September outlined how states can get relief from NLCB if they come up with an alternative plan acceptable to the U.S. Department of Education, and the Shumlin administration quickly moved to take advantage.

The proposal before the board was developed in the past two months with the help of five focus groups and includes measures for college and career readiness, redesigned accountability systems with multiple measures, a focus on underserved students, closing the achievement gap, and evaluating teacher effectiveness, according to the education department. Knopf said the proposal would be spelled out with more details by Jan. 17, for a possible final vote of approval by the board and then a public comment period.

Fayneese Miller said Vermont has seen widespread participation and a ‘broad buy in’ of the entire education community in developing the waiver request.”

Jeanne Collins, superintendent of the Burlington School System, worked on the draft and said there were many reasons Vermont needs its own system of measuring student progress. In her district where there are a lot of students with immigrant backgrounds, she said it makes no sense under NLCB to “have an arbitrary finish line in a race where they’re starting a mile behind.”

“I feel this is the right thing to do,” she said.

Some of the nitty-gritty details that remain to be worked out and which were discussed Tuesday include what grades will face testing and by what methods teachers will be evaluated. Under NLCB, schools had to make annual progress in a broad range of student categories or face public sanctions and even removal of the principal at the school.

“We like the fact there’s not testing at every grade level,” said Ken Page, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, who said he also likes a greater emphasis on student creativity. He said the testing requirements of NLCB and prepping for tests have meant lost learning time and when schools fail to meet annual progress standards, it resulted in “the blame and shame we’ve had the last few years.”

He noted 72 percent of his colleagues “are now on the bad principal list,” which he himself belongs to.

But he also wondered what is going to happen when federal officials get Vermont’s proposal and if they will start tweaking it and imposing their views, leading to Vermont’s greater arts and creative endeavors emphasis being tossed.

Janet Steward, chairwoman of the Vermont Standards Board for Professional Educators, stressed that the proposal was not about loosening accountability under NLCB, but making sure it’s in the right places.

Education Board member William Mathis, a former superintendent, raised a concern that the proposal leaves gaps of several years when students would not be tested and could fall behind, which could lead to federal denial of the waiver. But Knopf explained that states were asked to be “innovative and creative” in assessing student progress a variety of different ways, and not all by tests.

She said plans were for students to be assessed “on a continuum” in a smarter and more balanced way that is not grade based. The state currently uses the New England Common Assessment Program tests at various times in grades 3-11 in reading, writing, math and science achievement.

Knopf also said the proposal envisions far more extensive use of technology throughout the school systems as Vermont modernizes and upgrades its broadband capabilities with a big chunk of federal dollars.

Collins, the Burlington school superintendent, said her district is using an iPad application that allows the principal to go into a class and provide immediate feedback for a teacher. She said new technology will allow Vermont to move to an “entirely different level” in how it measures classroom progress.

Board member Brian Vachon wondered what Vermont’s chances of getting the waiver were. Knopf said she thought they were “high” based on her discussions with U.S. Education Department chief Arne Duncan, who has told them he favors a flexible approach.

“I’m taking him at his word,” she said.

Education Board Chairwoman Fayneese Miller said Vermont has seen widespread participation and a “broad buy in” of the entire education community in developing the waiver request.

“I think that’s one thing in our favor,” she added.

In other business:

• The board backed a proposal to study a possible consolidation of the Essex-Caledonia school district, which only has 520 students in eight towns. Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca said  it was an ideal time for consolidation since that district and the adjacent one in St. Johnsbury both are facing loss of their superintendents. The Essex-Caledonia district was given permission by Vilaseca to hire a superintendent for one to two years while options are considered, he said.
• Vilaseca said the education department is looking at its options to reunite its 200-member workforce, which is currently housed in two places in Berlin and in the DMV building in Montpelier.  The review comes as the state reorganizes departments and agencies after the flooding closed most of the Waterbury state office complex after Tropical Storm Irene.
• Officials said the education department, which has lost some 24 percent of its employees in cutbacks the past few years, is having trouble filling vacancies because of the low salaries for the positions being sought.