Vermont ed. officials announce new reading and math initiative

(WCAX)
Published: Dec. 12, 2019 at 7:56 AM EST
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There's a new push underway by Vermont education officials to boost students' reading and math scores by giving school districts the tools to better track students' progress from the start of their education to the moment they head into their careers.

The latest results from the Nation's Report Card show Vermont students are still struggling with math and reading. Just 37 percent of fourth graders were proficient at reading, and just 39 percent were proficient at math. Forty percent of eighth graders were proficient at reading, and 38 percent were proficient at math. In some cases those were declines from the 2017 assessments.

"Improving reading and math skills of our students needs to be a priority of our education system," said Vermont Education Secretary Dan French.

That's why French says their new partnership with MetaMetrics, a North Carolina-based company, is important. He says will allows all Vermont school districts access to the company's tools that track progress in reading and math, starting from the moment they enter kindergarten. Officials say right now they don't have any data before third grade. And the data after that may not be in a form that allows teachers to figure out what students need.

"This is creating a better way to look at the data so we can answer that question of what's working and what isn't. And that's been part of the issue in education that very often we have new approaches and new ideas, but the question of -- is it working or not is hard to answer sometimes," French said.

Vermont already has measurements of student success in the form of SBAC and other standardized tests. Those aren't going away, but paired with them for educators, parents, and students to look at will be another score that takes into account both the complexity of the material and student's ability. The goal is for teachers to use all those metrics to determine what each student needs. And it also allows students to research which reading and math skill levels they need to reach for specific careers. Educators say that fits in with the Personalized Learning Plans that students are required to have by Vermont law.

"Students can better discern how much more preparation is needed before they are college and career ready," said Deputy Education Secretary Heather Bouchey.

The program also provides schools tools to help them judge how a student is doing and links to resources to help students who are struggling with specific lessons.

How will the state know that this tool is worth the investment? "Where we would hopefully see the changes are in SBAC and lexile outcomes themselves. I mean, part of the strategy here is not necessarily, from the agency's perspective, endorse a specific approach or teaching approach. That's really something that locals are in the best position to decide," French said.

The program will roll out in the spring, though some districts are already using it. It cost $200,000 and will be paid for with federal money. There is no cost to school districts and no mandate that they have to use it.

The data that is collected is not owned by MetaMetrics -- it's the state's.