Education

Education Secretary Saunders responds to poor report card on students’ reading and math

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By Michael Bielawski

The test results are in and Vermont students are lagging in performance in math and reading, and the momentum is going in the wrong direction.

“The NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] results highlight a sense of urgency to promote student outcomes,” said Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders. “We are committed to elevating outcomes through initiatives like Read Vermont, identifying areas for improvement, reversing the downward trend, and building a future where every student can thrive.”

The test is administered every two years for grades 4 and 8 nationwide. Vermont students’ average performance “was not significantly different from the national average” it states. This year’s data and past years for Vermont can be found here.

Scores keep falling. It says, “The 2024 results reinforce a decades-long pattern of declining performance. Relative to pre-pandemic (2019) and post-pandemic (2022) performance, 2024 Vermont reading scores were significantly lower in Grade 4 and Grade 8.”

Vermont students’ performance in math was below national average for Grade 4 but it was higher for Grade 8.

It says, “Nationally, average reading scores also declined compared to 2022, but at a smaller rate than in Vermont. In mathematics, average scores in Vermont did not change from 2022. Nationwide, average math scores increased from 2022 by two points in Grade 4, but did not change in Grade 8,” it states.

Basic vs. Proficient scores

In contrast, NAEP Proficient means it “represents solid academic performance for each NAEP assessment. Students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real-world situations, and analytical skills appropriate to the subject matter.”

The official data states that for grade 4 reading, 31% of students scored “at or above proficient” and 58% scored “at or above basic.” For grade 8 reading, those numbers were 29% and 67%. For grade 4 mathematics, they were 36% and 75%. And for Grade 8 mathematics, they were 29% and 64%.

According to the National Assessment Governing Board, NAEP Basic level performance “denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for performance at the NAEP Proficient level.”

Cost still rising

Vermont’s Joint Fiscal Office also did a report on the education system and they stressed that while performance is going down, the costs are still rising.

“These figures are particularly striking when considering the continued increase in education expenditures per pupil in Vermont without a commensurate change in student performance when compared to national trends,” the report states.

Political analyst Rob Roper wrote in a commentary for VDC why Vermont’s Education System is “a hot mess”.

““For the 2021-22 school year, the average per pupil spending rate was $23,299 compared to the national average of $14,360 and the New England average of $21,535. Since 2001, Vermont has climbed from the eighth highest per pupil expenditure in the country to the second highest,” Roper wrote.

In another piece, he wrote that Vermont education’s recent hyper-focus on social justice and equity-themed issues could be part of the culprit for the falling scores.

“Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the leftist politicians and activists in and outside the classroom have spent all of these kids’ lives telling them that the adults from previous generations – like the one standing in front of the blackboard with the wooden pointer — are all systematically racist, sexist, and homophobic guardians of an oppressive society that has, among its many sins, laid waste to the planet these youngsters will inherit,” he wrote.

The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle

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Categories: Education

15 replies »

  1. Headline fixed:

    Education Secretary Saunders responds to superior report card on students’ social justice and LGBTQxyz proficiency

  3. I’m sure many students are knowledgeable about the works of Howard Zinn, only they cannot make simple change of a dollar or read a job application.

    • Yes, they are. The teachings of the historian Marxist Howard Zinn is a key priority of the Essex Westford School District.

  4. Start teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic instead of DEI indoctrination. How many years has Saunders been in thos job? She’s done NOTHING to improve students’ performance. VT Dept of Education os a bloated bureaucracy sucking tax payers dry and taking away local control of our schools.

  5. Well atleast the results are equitable right? Equity is the major goal of the NEA, AFT, DOE, AOE, VPA, VSA, VSBS, NSBA, etc. Equity driven policies have never led to net positive results and never will. Stop virtue signaling and start educating. If not, tear it all down. Government run public education is a failure for both the students and the tax payers.

  6. Let me guess, we need to spend MORE on education! Give me a break! Start teaching basic math and get students to read more and play video games less but since they won’t do either, I want a refund on my taxes.

  7. To all liberals who defend our level of public education spending and the proficiency it provides, please go to a deli and ask for 2/3 of a pound of something and observe the blank stare on the face of the young clerk.

  8. Want a reality check? As an employer, try interviewing a young adult in the labor pool on the most basic STEM concepts. Few have the literacy to compose a letter of introduction, or God forbid, a resume. A 15 year old child in my extended family can not read a clock. They are unemployable in most 21st century careers.

    Over 120 years ago, my grandmother attended a one room school in the remote Vermont hills. Leaving to help support the family farm, as most young women did.
    Her command of English, grammar, math, literature, poetry, civics and geography far, far exceeded anything I encounter of late.

    What passes for education in Vermont is despicable. Thank a teacher.

    • 45 years ago, I hired my first employee in Vermont for a construction project. He had graduated from the local high school, spending his senior year at the Brattleboro Tech school in classes for carpentry, etc. He was a hard worker and learned quickly.

      But he couldn’t read an ad on a matchbook cover nor could he point out fractions on a tape measure. My second hire later that year…. ditto. Again, they worked hard, showed up for work on time (most of the time), and I was able to teach them basic math and reading relatively quickly along the way. They were capable.

      Since then, I’ve had hundreds of employees. And even later on, I had to read procedural and safety manuals to some of them and decipher their ‘writing’ on timecards and production reports, and double check math. In the final analysis I had to insist that all job applications be filled out in our office in front of supervision to be sure ‘a friend’ out in their car wasn’t helping them to fill it out. But again, they worked hard, were reliable, and learned quickly. I did my best with what was available.

      Make no mistake – our public education system has not only failed us, it has damaged untold thousands of kids along the way. What I see so far from Secretary Saunders and Governor Scott is more of the same. They’re just moving the pea under a different shell and hoping you can’t follow it.

    • Don’t forget to thank the voters, who elected the legislators, who catered to the education special interests.

      At some point, ladies and gentlemen, we will all have to figure out that we, our friends, our neighbors, and our colleagues at work, deserve the most thanks… for what it’s worth.

      And we all know how to fix the system… for what that’s worth too.