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Part 1 of a 3-part commentary
by Gerry Silverstein
During the last decade the amount of money that has been spent on public school education in Vermont is inversely proportional to student proficiency scores on national standardized exams (NAEP exams-National Assessment of Educational Progress) in 4th and 8th grade math and reading.
In short: since 2013-15 spending more money on public school education in Vermont has been associated with a decline in learning proficiency acquisition, not an improvement in the core areas of 4th and 8th grade math and reading.
It is true that, nationwide, learning proficiency in core areas has fallen in all states.
However Vermont’s results are especially concerning considering the State has the second highest spending per pupil of all 50 States, spends twice as much as 16 other states, and Vermont statewide has the lowest ratio of pupils to staff (4.4:1) of all 50 states (national average of 7.45:1).
Vermont scores statewide for 4th grade math, 8th grade math, 4th grade reading and 8th grade reading translated into the following rankings compared to all 50 States on 2024 NAEP exams:
34, 18, 33, and 24. (#1 ranking is best; Massachusetts was #1 in all 4 categories).
Utah spends 170% less per student compared to Vermont: $10,000 per pupil versus $27,000 in Vermont (2024) yet Utah had rankings of 4, 3, 7, and 8 on the corresponding 2024 NAEP exams!
Question: Are standardized tests a good metric for measuring student proficiency in the core areas of math, reading, and science?
Answer: If tests are well written and students are adequately prepared for how their learning will be assessed on the exams, the answer is unequivocally yes!
Question: Are standardized tests the only way to measure success in public school education?
Answer: No, absolutely not, but they are free from the bias associated with the epidemic of grade inflation leading to student GPAs that often do not accurately represent student academic skills and knowledge acquisition in core areas.
The above NAEP results along with in-state standardized testing (see below) send 2 clear messages:
#1: significant numbers of Vermont public school students have yet to acquire the core knowledge in math, reading, and science that is essential for future success.
#2: there is no objective basis for spending ever-increasing amounts of money as an approach to improving proficiency outcomes for Vermont students.
The author, a South Burlington resident, is a virologist who taught courses related to human health and disease at UVM for 22 years.
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Categories: Commentary, Education
Time(past time )to do the math. More in less out.
Somebody has to tell us how that works.
And somehow the state STILL feels that to get better results, we need to spend even more even though it’s not working.
Oh yes, try teaching math, science and reading instead of gender studies and critical race theory.
Would be interesting to see the relationship between public education and private ” religious ” in terms of math and English proficiency.
I would venture to guess that private schools do much better but are the bane of the teachers union.
Re: “Would be interesting to see the relationship between public education and private…”
This ‘relationship’ is readily apparent. Parents and their children are compelled to attend public schools, while they choose to attend independent schools, independent religious schools, and homeschool. Not only do the parents who send their kids to independent schools and homeschool do so because of improved academic proficiency, they do so at great sacrifice because they have to financially support the failed public school system while also paying the expense of independent school tuition and homeschool.
The primary (and honest) question is; when will parents, taxpayers, and voters in general, finally realize that electing officials sympathetic to School Choice will correct this inverse proportionality? Clearly, when a trained professional with 22 years of experience doesn’t connect the dots, we have a long way to go to get people to understand what’s really going on.
To all: Please accept my apology for the glib question below – ‘Is this news?’ But after 30 years of publishing the same observations as Dr. Silverstein’s current missive, I’m admittedly frustrated that so many Vermonters still aren’t connecting the dots.
Nice report, looking forward to the other sections.
Here is leadership, this person should be in charge of our school system. If you can identify the problem, you have a much better chance of solving it.
But our uniparty system is beholden to another power. The Vt GOP, our governor and Lt gov are selling us down the road, yet again. Smoke, mirrors, artificial fighting (like fake wrestling) forth coming along with guarantee of more grifting.
This one article defeats all the lies and propaganda in a very short and well articulated fashion.
Will be interesting to see if more wisdom is forth coming.
How did you survive UVM?
Appreciate your comments and I hope you finds parts II and III informative and engaging.
With regard to your last comment about surviving at UVM:
UVM, like most universities, is NOT a monolith in terms of culture, learning opportunities, and student engagement.
If a parent asked me could their child get a good education at UVM, I would always say absolutely yes.
But I would also say to the parent that it is up to your child to fully commit to getting that quality education. If they want to live in a one viewpoint silo, party constantly, skip classes, and abuse drugs on a regular basis, then I would tell the parent that your child will probably waste a lot of the family’s income, not to mention state and federal grants the child may be eligible for.
It is true that living in some dorms the first year or two can be a problem as the party culture can be an impediment to academic learning and personal growth.
A student committed to maximizing the quality of their education may have to spend a great deal of time at the library (as I did as a college student majoring in the sciences) AND the University administration must be vigilant in ensuring dorms are not impediments to academic learning and personal growth.
Like many problems society currently faces success is possible…and I believe that is true at UVM in terms of a quality education.
One must always be careful about drawing conclusions about an entire University by focusing on a minority of students whose activism (including taking over buildings which the University should never tolerate) gets them, unfortunately, profiled as the “face of the University” by the news media.
If interested I highly recommend the following NY Times commentary today from the President of Cornell:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/opinion/ideas-universities-controversey-protest.html
The NYTimes on-line has a paywall but anyone can register for 10 free articles per month.
Well, what you say surely holds much truth. There were, and surely still are great professors within the school. There is a tenor, as there is among many universities, of ideological conformity, that some might say goes against reality. It was present in the 80’s when I was there and has grown stronger.
Going back on campus after many years it was interesting to witness the staggering quality of buildings, even more so the new facilities. Also, everyone smoking, which I found too funny, having grown up in the age where tobacco was being actively shunned by society.
Have many fond memories of attending school there and many struggles, as is part of life. There was much experimentation and openness of ideas, but only of certain ideas, some are still squelched and forbidden.
My own take is our entire educational system has been part of military tactic known as subversion, so I realize I am an outlier, most definitely in Vermont. When you see the truth, it’s tough to unsee it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g
I do find it “interesting” in how he could predict the future 35 years ago. He could because he knew the plan, used many times before.
Looking forward to your insights.
This is news?
Vermont has 40 years of controlled media, aka propaganda. People are literally brain washed. Is this new? Most certainly not. As you well know it been this way for decades. It is still truth. It is still news. It desperately needs to be told over and over, as you have been doing. More people singing the same song will eventually bring about some school harmony.
Jay I agree that what I have said in Part I, for the most part, should not be received as an “epiphany” for those who follow the reality of public school education in Vermont (although the juxtaposition of Utah spending vs Vermont spending…and the corresponding academic results… should be an “epiphany” for those in the “people’s house”)
I read your VDC comments about public school education in Vermont all the time and have learned a good deal from what you post.
Can the ship of education that is currently floundering in stormy waters (both academically and fiscally) find calmer and safer waters?
Personally I am not optimistic but, as always, I would welcome being proven wrong.
Remember the wisdom of James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”
Thank you, Dr. Silverstein, for your continued engagement. And while I too remain pessimistic that the course of education will change in the near future, it is not because the course-correction is obscure.
In fact, the correct course coordinates are obvious… and simple to follow. But with Vermont’s current legislative and executive political construct, controlled by the obvious special interest groups, the ship’s current officers remain unconvinced, with the only remedy being the election of a new command.
The problem with Vermont’s public-school monopoly is that neither parents, their children, nor their teachers, can take advantage of merit based ‘self-determination’. Myriad studies show us that when teachers and their students are externally regulated, the less they show interest, value, and effort toward achievement, and the more they tend to disown responsibility for negative outcomes, always blaming others.
That being said, and without having the opportunity to review your missive parts II
and III, I again recommend this one course correction – the H.89 School Choice bill. I hope you will consider the bill in its application, not the odds of it ever becoming law.
To reverse the age-old axiom, in order to get a horse to drink, we must first lead it to the water. Then it’s up to each individual horse, much the same as it is with each UVM student. “… to fully commit to getting that quality education.”
Thank you, again. Your review and comment on the H.89 School Choice bill will be greatly appreciated.