School ratings delayed again
By CHRIS PARKER, Bennington Banner, Sept. 18, 2004

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Saturday, September 18, 2004 - BENNINGTON -- Parents and Vermont school districts will have to wait about a month to learn which public schools are on the state's annual list of those failing to make adequate progress.

The list, required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, is supposed to come out before the school year begins. The Vermont Department of Education had set late August as a target date, but spokeswoman Jill Remick said the list would be out about late October because of an ongoing analysis.

This is the third straight year the department has been late in making the information public. Last year, the list was set to be finished around August but wasn't released until November. In 2002, results were released in September.

State Commissioner of Education Richard Cate said the holdup this year has to do with the timing of the administration of the New Standards Reference Exams students take in the spring and the "back and forth" between the department and individual schools to make sure every student is accounted for.

He said the department's standards and assessment team isn't behind, but is rather just now getting the data from schools. In about three weeks, assessment results will be finalized and progress reports on each of the state's 307 public schools will follow shortly thereafter.

Education officials said they have been working to verify the data so parents and educators can make the best use of the information once it becomes public.

"We want to make absolutely sure before we release the statewide results because the last thing we want to do is backpedal," said Remick. "These things just take a long time."

The lists, based on test scores and other data, are important because parents whose children attend schools on the list have the right to transfer them to a better school in the district. But if schools are not identified until September or later, any transfer would also require pulling students out of one school to enter another.

Under the No Child act, which took effect in 2002, schools in need of improvement - also commonly called failing schools - must offer transfers if a school in the district has room and isn't on the list. Schools also must provide additional educational services, take corrective action, and restructure, if necessary.

The state list issued last year had 37 schools, or 12 percent of its public schools, failing to make progress.

Most Bennington County schools made adequate yearly progress in all areas in 2003, but Bennington's Catamount Elementary School and Molly Stark School did not meet requirements in English/Language Arts for free/reduced lunch students.

While Vermont's schools districts generally offer few or no options for parents wanting to transfer their children into other district schools, Bennington County has four elementary schools and thus more options. The schools include Catamount, Molly Stark, Bennington Elementary and Monument Elementary.

Maine Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron recently told the Associated Press that she expected about 30 other states will have delayed lists this fall.

Remick said she considered the number rather high, but Gail Taylor, the state education department's director of standards and assessment, confirmed that information.

Education officials in states like Massachusetts and New York have already released at least preliminary data, whereas Vermont and Maine had not as of Friday morning.

Cate said his department isn't purposely holding up publication of testing data and Remick said he relayed this information to the U.S. Department of Education, which was okay with the news.

The education commissioner has "taken a peek" at the preliminary results, but he declined to comment on them.

Secretary of State Deboarah Markowitz said preliminary figures aren't necessarily public records, so education departments can't be forced to release the information, although some do as a public service in advance of final reports.

In June, the education departments in Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire agreed to collaborate on a new, streamlined system of testing for public school students that will take effect next fall and replace the spring testing.

The agreement means that students in grades three through eight in the states will take the same examinations in reading and mathematics. In addition, students in grades five through eight will be assessed in writing.

The tests will be a new set of examinations being developed by Measured Progress of Dover, N.H., and will be based on a set of standards educators from the three states have been developing since 2002.

Remick said the change means assessment testing typically administered in the springtime in Vermont will take place in the fall of 2005. The states involved will pilot the new tests on Oct. 26-28, while the writing portion will come sometime before year's end.

While the testing move means students will have about five more months to prepare for the test than in year's past, it would also allow educators enough time to prepare for the changeover.

The hope is that the new system will see results published around the February, which could give educators more time to make curriculum adjustments or consider them the spring and summers before the next school year.

"This year, it's too late," said Remick.

Cate said the change could also affect how school officials plan their budgets before the voting season.

"Our goal is to give (educators) as much time as possible to plan ahead for the coming year," he said.

State superintendents have had mixed reactions to the concept for fall testing, which was conceived before Cate became commissioner last November.

He said some like the idea while others don't. Those who disagree say they need more time between now and next fall to prepare for the changeover. He said testing is still scheduled to occur next fall.

Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Superintendent Wes Knapp is one of those opposed, but he's not alone.

There is almost "wholesale opposition" to testing in the fall among the Southwest Vermont Superintendents Association, he told the Banner earlier this month.

Mary Moran, superintendent of Rutland City Public Schools, has said there appeared to be a consensus among members that testing shouldn't be moved to the fall.

Knapp opposes fall testing for various reasons. One is that teachers haven't had students for very long in the fall before they are to be tested. Another is that a student fresh from an idle summer vacation may not be prepared to take the tests, he said.

Also, data based on studies of the spring test scores has been collected for years. Now fall test scores, based on different bodies of knowledge, will have no correlation to previous data, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.