[V]ermont’s standardized test scores in math and English went up this year in most grades, according to results released Wednesday by the Vermont Agency of Education, reversing a downward turn from last year.
Vermont has been using the tests from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium — commonly called SBACs — since 2016 for federal accountability purposes, and the metrics will also be used in determining whether or not schools qualify for the state’s small schools grants.
Students in grades 3 through 9 took the computerized test in the spring. Students in grade 9 took the test for the first time this year, so no comparisons to last year are possible in that grade.
Scores went up almost across the board in English, with notable gains for students in grades 4 and 8. Fifty-three percent of grade 4 students scored proficient and above in English, up 4 percent from last year, and 57 percent of grade 8 students reached proficiency, up 2 percent from last year. Scale scores – adjusted raw scores – declined only in grade 5, by a single point. But the percentage of grade 5 students reaching proficiency remained the same at 55 percent.
Results were more mixed in math, where scale scores and the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency went up in grades 4, 6 and 8. In grades 3 and 5, average scale scores dropped a single point, but the percent of students scoring proficient didn’t change.
District-specific data is not yet available.
Schools themselves have received student scores, but agency officials said that local administrators had been directed to not release their data for the time being in order to protect student privacy. Local results, they said, will be made available to the public when a new testing dashboard is launched in December.
This year’s release also included statewide scores for “historically marginalized” students, a new category that encompasses several types of students who typically underperform on standardized tests: those who are non-white, special education, low-income, non-native English speaking, migrant, homeless, and military-affiliated.
The new category was added in part because of new federal accountability measures under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind. Because individual school districts in Vermont are often so small, local test scores for certain demographics – for example, for non-white students – are typically suppressed to protect student privacy. Collapsing all of the categories together will allow for more public reporting at the local level.
Unsurprisingly, this year’s statewide scores showed steep achievement gaps between historically marginalized and un-marginalized students, in all grades and in both math and English. The widest gulf was in grade 9 math, where there was a 100-point difference between the two groups’ average scale scores, 2487 compared to 2587.
Historically marginalized and not marginalized students results differences
“The state can be quite proud of student achievement overall,” Deputy Agency of Education Secretary Heather Bouchey said in a statement, “yet we cannot overlook the performance discrepancies between students who have historically been marginalized and those who enjoy greater privilege.”
Secretary of Education Dan French in a statement noted that the era of standardized testing that began with No Child Left Behind was coming to an end.
“I am hopeful that our efforts to personalize learning for students and to create more flexible and relevant pathways throughout our education system will translate into greater levels of achievement across the entire system,” he said.
