In a letter sent to the parents and “caregivers” of all Vermont schoolchildren, the state’s new Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe said in no uncertain terms that our public schools are not failing, despite declarations to the contrary from the federal government. According to Holcombe, “every school whose students took the NECAP tests last year is now considered a ‘low performing’ school by the US Department of Education.” But, she said, “The Vermont Agency of Education does not agree with this federal policy, nor do we agree that all of our schools are low performing.”
She goes on to present evidence from a variety of sources, including federal studies and Vermont’s actual NECAP standardized test results, to show that Vermont schoolchildren are performing well, and in fact, better than those of many other states. The problem is that under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), from 2014 on, if even a single child in a school does not score as “proficient” by federal standards, the entire school is labeled “low performing.” With this label come ramifications.
Writes Holcombe: “The ‘low performing’ label brings with it a number of mandatory sanctions, which your principal is required to explain to you. This policy does not serve the interest of Vermont schools, nor does it advance our economic or social well-being. Further, it takes our focus away from other measures that give us more meaningful and useful data on school effectiveness.”
Up until now, Vermont has not had to submit to the more onerous sanctions imposed by No Child Left Behind, nor is it clear whether Vermont will now be required to impose them on its schools. According to the legislation, failure to make Adequare Yearly Progress can lead to firing teachers and administrators en masse and ultimately closing or privatizing public schools. If you consider that from this year forward, all our schools will fail to make AYP unless every single student is scored “proficient,” you can see that it’s just a matter of time until the worst of the sanctions come to bear. Whether or not they lead to teacher firings and school closures remains to be seen.
Vermont could have opted out of NCLB and avoided these sanctions. Holcombe explains that the reason Vermont did not opt out is because to opt out, they would have been required to evaluate teachers on the basis of student test scores. “Vermont is one of only 5 states that do not have a waiver at this time,” says Holcombe. “We chose not to agree to a waiver for a lot of reasons, including that the research we have read on evaluating teachers based on test scores suggests these methods are unreliable in classes with 15 or fewer students, and this represents about 40-50% of our classes.”
Holcombe concludes her letter by declaring the state’s commitment to innovative approaches to education and plans for a collaborative effort to improve Vermont’s schools. But as long as NCLB remains unaltered and the sanctions remain in place, Vermont’s public schools — not to mention teachers and administrators — remain at risk under the law.
For the full story, read the letter: “Vermont’s Commitment To Continuous Improvement” from Vermont Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe, dated August 6, 2014.
How Vermont Ranks in Education
Thanks Lise. This is interesting, especially in the context of how Vermont ranks in education.
VT recently signed into law Vermont’s Early Childhood Action Plan with a strong focus on early learning that “requires communities to offer at least 10 hours per week of high-quality, publicly funded pre-kindergarten education for 35 weeks annually to any “prekindergarten children.” Qualified pre-kindergarten programs include those operated by public schools, private early education and care programs, and Head Start. “ ~vtdigger
Additionally, our high school graduation rate is roughly 90 percent, high by any standards, and one of the highest rates in the nation.
“Students must complete at least 20 academic units in various subjects to graduate from Vermont high schools, and they’re tested via the New England Common Assessment Program, according to the Vermont Agency of Education.
In the 2014 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings, there are eight silver medal schools and seven bronze medals schools in Vermont. Among the state’s top-ranked schools are Montpelier High School, part of the Montpelier School District in the state’s capital city, and Lake Region High School in Orleans, near the Canadian border. To be eligible for a state ranking, a school must be awarded a national gold or silver medal.”
See top ranked VT schools: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/vermont
the letter, and who is really failing?
The Secretary’s letter reads a bit like hint that Vermont might look for a way to drop out of NCLB.
And also a hint that we will soon hear that all our schools are failures, despite their non-failures.
It would seem that the one-size-fits-all approach to education, top-down, from the board rooms of corporations and desks of politicians, is the real failure. NCLB has failed to make adequate yearly progress and has failed our state’s test.
Vermont won't drop NCLB
The state dropping NCLB would be about the same as it not taking Transportation funding. Ain’t gonna happen.
Regarding our successful schools
I would agree that the funding piece is so compelling that our schools have few choices of action that do not require courage and boldness of spirit.
As I read Secretary Holcombe’s words I cannot help but detect a larger fraud being foisted upon us. If Vermont’s schools can be labelled so cavalierly as failing – there is not a public school in America – serving an actual cross section of American families – that can be labelled as ‘successful’ in this process.
Why are virtually all of Vermont’s schools being labeled as ‘failing’? Because we have not purchased a waiver by agreeing to evaluate teachers with the same mind numbing data driven assessments as we use on the students! While it is true that Vermont needs federal money, corporations are the ones actually drooling over the money that is to be made by privatizing and standardizing instructional materials, assessments and the management of public education.
I think this letter from Secretary Holcombe is amazingly honest in expressing the frustration felt by educators in Vermont when faced by the national movement to undermine public education. I can think of many national institutions and policies that could be labeled as ‘FAILING’ in our society (contact me for a list). However, our public schools – even with all their challenges – are not on this list.
Andy Davis