This commentary is by Erica Walch of Newfane.
I just read the VTDigger article about Vermont students’ test scores dropping during the pandemic. That’s concerning, and certainly seems to show remote instruction is no replacement for in-school classes.
What’s more concerning is how poorly students have been doing overall — pandemic or no pandemic.
Your data shows that fewer than half of all students in grades K-6 were proficient in math before the pandemic, only slightly more than half were proficient in English, and about 40% were proficient in science. And all of those test scores dropped from 2016 to 2019.
What is happening in Vermont schools? We have one of the highest per-pupil spending rates in the country ($19,400 or $17,400, depending on the source), we have small schools where students can receive individualized instruction, there is layer upon layer of administration in every district, there are special programs and instructional aides loading up the school budgets, and yet we have abysmal test scores.
The State Board of Education’s website says it “is responsible for the establishment, advancement and evaluation of public education policy. The powers and duties of the board include making regulations governing: attendance and records of attendance of all pupils, standards for student performance, adult basic education programs, approval of independent schools, disbursement of funds, and equal access for all Vermont students to a quality education.”
It certainly does not look like students are getting a quality education with those falling test scores. Perhaps the Board of Education, parents and other citizens should look into what is being taught in schools and how it’s being taught, figure out where all that money is going and examine why our children can’t pass proficiency tests.
With the mergers and move toward centralization for school districts and the removal of school budgets from town meeting, parents and other townspeople know less about what’s happening in schools.
This data shows the schools are failing in their duty to educate.
Wealthy parents (both those who moved to Vermont during the pandemic and those who have been here all along) have the choice to send their kids to expensive private schools and that’s a choice they take. Public charter schools in other states tend to do far better at teaching than public schools do, and students in those charter schools (especially those from impoverished homes) score better on proficiency tests than their peers in public schools.
Public charter schools are a way of giving kids an opportunity to learn if their public schools are failing, like so many Vermont schools are. If the Board of Education can’t intervene to improve education at public schools, perhaps it can move forward to support the establishment of public charter schools that will do the job that most people assume public schools ought to be doing — teaching the basics so students will graduate knowing how to read, write, do math and science, and have an ability to reason and understand arguments.
