Editor’s note” Mark Redmond is the executive director of Spectrum Youth & Family Services and the author of “The Goodness Within: Reaching Out to Troubled Teens with Love and Compassion.”
We received two important pieces of news recently about our education system in Vermont. On Jan. 22, the U.S. Department of Education released its annual report on the high school graduation rate. Vermont replaced Wisconsin as number one in the nation, with a completion rate of 91.4 percent. That seems like cause for celebration.
But eight days later, the Vermont Education Agency released the standardized testing results of the 2012 New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). While there were some improvements compared to the prior year, the indisputable facts are that only 51 percent of our fifth-graders scored in the proficient range in writing, and 66 percent in eighth grade. In high school, grade 11, it’s 46 percent. In reading, approximately one-quarter of our students are not proficient. And in math, 65 percent of elementary/middle school students were proficient, and only 38 percent of the 11th-graders. And keep in mind that to earn a rating of “proficient” a student need only score 50 percent on the NECAP, not exactly a high bar.
Improvements or not, that such low percentages of our students are proficient in core academic subjects is sobering indeed. And yet, we rank number one in the nation in the percentage of students obtaining a high school diploma. How do you square these seeming contradictions?
My best guess is “social promotion,” i.e. the practice of promoting a student to the next grade, despite their inability to actually understand and master the academic matter at their present grade level. It is a very real practice, it’s not right, and it explains the paradox of high graduation rates coupled with poor proficiency in core areas.
“If a student fails a class, he still moves on to the next grade but has to take that class over.” My next question was, “So a student could receive a D-minus in every single class, every single year, with a cumulative grade point average of less than 1.0, and walk across the stage at the end of senior year and receive a diploma?”
At Spectrum Youth & Family Services, where I work, more than once I have received a call from an incredulous staff member, “I have a young person in front of me, and he has a high school diploma … but he can’t read … she can’t fill out a job application … how can this be?”
And I’ve seen it with my own eyes. A few months ago I met with a school administrator about a young man in his first year of high school who is receiving failing or near-failing grades, and has been for years. I asked the question, “At what point do you stop just moving a student along from one grade to the next, when it is obvious that the educational approach hasn’t been working and you need to do something different?”
She replied: “If a student fails a class, he still moves on to the next grade but has to take that class over.” My next question was, “So a student could receive a D-minus in every single class, every single year, with a cumulative grade point average of less than 1.0, and walk across the stage at the end of senior year and receive a diploma?”
Her answer: “Yes.”
At least now I can explain to the staff at Spectrum how diplomas are awarded despite obvious academic deficiencies, such as the ability to read.
I’m not saying that any of this is easy to fix, but it does have to be fixed or we will continue to produce young people ill-prepared not only for college but for the workplace. The solution takes place on several levels, first with the family, with parents and caregivers who impart to their children the idea that doing well in school is absolutely paramount, that receiving an education is far more important than sports, dating, Facebook, and almost anything else.
Second is the students themselves; those who are falling behind need to develop a work ethic and drive that necessitates turning away from the television and Wii and turning to reading, homework and online tutorial resources such as Khan Academy.
And then there are the schools. We need educational leaders who are no longer willing to hide behind meaningless and misleading statistics, and instead are willing to acknowledge that we are not adequately educating a significant portion of our students. We need educational leaders who are willing to challenge the status quo and who refuse to simply keep passing students along from grade to grade, and instead will identify them early and educate them in an evidenced-based way that will increase the chances of their academic success.
If we persist on the present path, we are doing a disservice to our young people, and the economic and social vitality of our state will diminish.
