Editorial: Report card

The report notes that the shift to remote learning during the pandemic further widened the inequality gap, stating, “Of the 70% of 9-year-olds who learned remotely during the 2020-21 school year, higher performers (those at or above the 75th percentile) had greater access to a desktop computer, laptop or tablet all the time; a quiet place to work available some of the time; and a teacher available to help them with mathematics or reading schoolwork every day or almost every day compared to lower performers (those below the 25th percentile).”

But it’s not just COVID that’s to blame. As the finance blog Wealth of Geeks noted in its analysis of the NAEP report, “Even before the pandemic, the U.S. was falling behind the rest of the world. Compared to 77 other countries, the average U.S. mathematics literacy score ranked 31st, trailing Hungary and just ahead of Belarus.”

One bright spot, however, was the Northeast. Using census data, Wealth of Geeks ranked the most and least highly educated states in the United States — ranked by the percentage of their population that holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. While the national average is 35%, individual states ranged from 24% to 63%.

Vermont — as is often the case with sorts of rankings — was near the top of the list in fourth place with 44%. The District of Columbia topped the list with 64%, followed by Massachusetts (46%) and Colorado (44%). New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, New Hampshire and New York rounded out the top 10.

But even those states that top the list — Vermont included — are struggling to close those same inequality gaps.

In Vermont, we see wide disparities between school districts. Factors such as income, geography, race and family status can also impact a student’s access to remote-learning technology, as well as their overall ability to learn. Indeed, inequity in education was exposed by the pandemic — not created by it — though it certainly exacerbated the situation.

On Tuesday, the state Agency of Education released preliminary results from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Program (SBAC) and the Vermont Science Assessment — annual standardized tests administered to gauge student proficiency in English, math and science.

The overall results show the pandemic continues to impact student learning, with students scoring below 50% proficiency. Science results for fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders all sat at or below 40% proficiency. Math results in grades three through nine, peaked at 44% proficiency. In English, no grade scored above 46% proficiency.

“Our 2022 Smarter Balanced and Vermont Science Assessment results show how the long shadow of COVID-19 continues to lie on Vermont’s education system,” said Secretary of Education Dan French. “The results are just one more data point reinforcing the continued importance of our Education Recovery efforts across the state.”

But as we know, test scores are only one metric of student success. Many students face hardships outside school that hinder their ability to learn and thrive in the classroom. Increasingly, those hardships have required more attention from teachers, support staff and administrators — from implementing social-emotional learning curricula and trauma-informed practices to providing more robust mental health services and counseling.

Throughout the pandemic, our kids told us they were struggling — enduring stress, uncertainty and social isolation, some in stressful home environments. Along the way, we have seen students in crisis acting out, disrupting classrooms, sometimes violently. Now, on the other side of the pandemic, we must make good on our promise to help them recover academically and emotionally.

Of course, that recovery costs money. This school budget season is shaping up to be a difficult one, as federal relief money dries up, common levels of appraisal drop across the state and school budgets steadily increase. In Montpelier, lawmakers hope proposed revisions to the state’s education funding formula will provide relief on both those fronts by addressing educational and economic disparities between school districts. But fully realizing that plan still is several years off.

In the meantime, passing school budgets require difficult decisions and painful cuts, ones that will force school officials to balance the needs of students against what taxpayers can bear. But those essential supports our students desperately need cannot be sacrificed for the bottom line. If we want our students to learn and succeed in school, we need to create the conditions for them to do so — both in the classroom and within themselves.