File: Daria Bishop ©️ Seven Days
A classroom library at Vergennes Union Elementary School
Preliminary data released by the Vermont Agency of Education show that students’ performance on standardized tests in reading, math and science mostly remained flat or declined slightly between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. The results also reflect a significant, and persistent, achievement gap between students who come from historically marginalized backgrounds and those who don't.
Students in third- through ninth-grade took language arts and math tests known as the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program, or VCAP. Students in fifth-, eighth- and eleven-grades took a science VCAP, too.
The test is scored on a four-point scale; scores of three and four are considered "proficient."
In spring 2024, 48 percent of Vermont third graders showed proficiency in language arts, which measures reading and writing skills. That was one percentage point lower compared to the previous year.
Proficiency rates for grades four through nine, meanwhile, ranged from 48 to 58 percent.
On the math test, 36 percent of third-grade students were proficient in 2024, which also represented a one-percent decline from 2023. Math proficiency rates for grades four to nine ranged from 30 to 47 percent.
Ninth-grade students were the only ones that showed improvement year over year in both subjects. In language arts, 48 percent achieved proficiency on the most recent test, a 5 percent increase from 2023. In math, 39 percent were proficient, which marked a 6 percent increase from the previous year.
Science proficiency among all three grade levels tested stayed mostly flat and ranged from 41 to 46 percent.
In evaluating the results, the state Agency of Education also looked at the performance of historically marginalized students, a broad category that includes students from racial or ethnic minorities; students living in poverty; students who qualify for special education; English learners and migrant students; students experiencing homelessness or in foster care; and students from military-affiliated families.
Data show large achievement gaps between those students and their peers. For example, 40 percent of fourth graders from historically marginalized groups showed proficiency on the most recent language arts VCAP, compared to 75 percent of their peers. Just 19 percent of historically marginalized fourth graders showed proficiency in math, compared to 47 percent for others.
In a press release, interim Education Secretary Zoie Saunders said the preliminary test results were being released months earlier than in past years based on feedback from educators around the state.
“The Agency is committed to accelerating this process to ensure schools and School Boards have the data they need to support timely decision making,” Saunders said.
The latest data comes after
an August data report found that proficiency rates for third through ninth graders in reading and math — measured by a
different standardized test — declined by around 10 percent post-pandemic.
This month, the Agency of Education announced that it was taking action to address students' sagging reading scores. On September 17, it launched
Read Vermont, a statewide initiative intended to strengthen students' reading skills by providing more professional learning opportunities and instructional coaching to teachers.
The initiative sprung from
literacy legislation passed this year that
calls for schools to screen all students in kindergarten through third grade for reading deficits; provide supplementary instruction to struggling students; and train early elementary teachers and administrators to use “evidence-based, effective, explicit, systematic” instruction that addresses the five pillars of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.