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Learning
& Education
. How
Are Vermont's High School Students Doing? There's a lot of talk about school standards, some of it important and worthwhile, some of it simply salvos from a heavily politicized agenda. There are test scores -- local, state, and national. In some cases, there are even international scores that try to show how we measure up to the rest of the world. There are subject-matter tests, like reading and math, and there are portfolio assessments that try to avoid the pitfalls of standardized multiple-choice tests. Many of these measures can be helpful in the right hands, i.e., in the hands of those with a genuine concern for students and quality outcomes. But for most parents, and others in the community, as well, sometimes the barrage of scores and the rhetoric that accompany them can be more confusing than helpful. But, just as is true with any measures of quality or performance, there are usually some basic figures about school performance that are fairly easy to get at, and fairly easy to understand. This is not to minimize, much less dismiss, the often important efforts at finding out where the strengths and weaknesses lie -- for our students or for our schools. But these simpler data offer a way -- much like, for example, infant mortality rates do for the overall health and well-being of a population -- of taking the pulse on education. Two such sets of data are high school graduation rates and continuation on to college. And they answer a couple of basic questions about the health and well-being of our educational system:
Even when we know the answers to these questions, whether for better or for worse, those answers will not tell us what, if anything, needs to be done. If we follow the medical analogy again, the answers to these question may be able to tell us about symptoms, and whether the proverbial patient might be ill, but if so, they will not provide a diagnosis, much less a course of treatment. That said, then, how have Vermont's high school student fared in relation to high school students in other states when it comes to getting a diploma?
The data used for the chart above are for public high school graduation rates for each of the states. As you can see, back in 1981, Vermont's public H.S. graduation rate was very near the average for all other states, at 77.67% -- roughly 3 out of 4 -- compared with 73.67% for all other states. That placed Vermont 21st out of 51, including the District of Columbia. That same year, Minnesota ranked number one -- as it did every year but one up through 1992 -- at 87.29%. Conversely, D.C. ranked 51st in 1981 -- as it did in six other years during the period. Vermont moves into the top 10
... Between 1984 and 1993, Vermont's H.S. graduation rate continued to rise at a modest rate, while the average for all states held steady or fell. By 1987, Vermont's graduation rate was 82.67%, placing it among the top ten states for the first time. That same year, the rate for all states fell back to 75.66%. After falling back slightly to 12th place in each of the next two years, Vermont again joined the top 10 in 1990 with a rate 82.27%. This pattern held for the next couple of years. In 1992, Vermont posted a rate of 82.38%, which placed it 9th overall. In 1993, the graduation rate was 82.04%, which put it back out of the top 10 at 11th place. Those same years, the average rate for all states continued to hover just below the 75% mark, at 74.78% and 74.66%, respectively. What happened next was somewhat out of the ordinary. The next year, 1994, Vermont again added a couple of points to its H.S. graduation rate, posting 84.62%, which gave it its best ranking up to that point -- at 7th among all states. That same year, D.C. also posted its best showing, with a rate of 64.68%, placing it 41st overall, while the rate for all states had fallen to 73.58%, for the first time, below the 1981 rate, and more than 10 points below Vermont's rising average. The next year, however, was even more dramatic for Vermont. From 3 out of 4
students graduating to a peak of nearly 9 out of 10 ... Only three graduation rates of any states ever reached or exceeded the 90% mark for the reporting period. The last to accomplish it was South Dakota in 1994, with a graduation rate of 91.36%. The only other state to do it was Minnesota some ten years earlier, when, in 1983 and 1984, it posted rates of 90.66% and an even more astonishing 95.97%, respectively. Unfortunately, Vermont was unable to hang on to the top honors after that. In 1997, the H.S. graduation rate here had fallen back to 81.12% -- a more than 8-point drop, and Vermont's worst since 1991. But with the averages across the country falling -- the average for all states that year continued to deteriorate, falling below 70% [69.65%] for the first time -- it was still enough to give Vermont a 5th place finish overall. In each of the next two years, the Vermont rate fell again, to 80.93% in 1998, and to 80.26% in 1999. Those same years, the averages for all states hovered around the 70% mark, at 70.20% in 1998, then at 69.45% in 1999 -- the worst showing to date. And with those declines, Vermont's rate, which was also falling, was still enough above the national average to secure it a 6th place finish for each of those two years. From the first time Vermont broke into the top 10 among all states, then, in 1987, it has managed a ranking in the top 10 nation-wide for 9 of the subsequent 13 years. And at no point between 1987 and 1999 did Vermont's rank fall below 12th place, a position it first attained in 1984, and which it has matched every year since but one -- in 1986 when a rate of 80.94% placed it 13th. But how do our local high schools compare in all this? ... ... ******* ******* If you would like to submit something for our Learning & Education section, don't hesitate to let us know. Simply e-mail us at learn@downstreetmagazine.com. The e-mail should contain your name, address, and a phone number where we can reach you. You may also send a copy of your proposed article. The text can either be included in the body of the e-mail, or you can send it as an attachment in just about any word processing format. If your piece is accepted, we will pay a small honorarium for your interest & your time. [See Freelancers Wanted for more details.] ******* ******* If you would like to advertise in this section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com. ******* ******* . |
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