DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WEB SITE

[Henry]

Hi All,

Well, I am not at all familiar with the progress reports or whatever they are called that they talked about on the Channel 3 News tonight, but if you would like to go to the Department of Education Web Site and check out BFA Fairfax, the link is:

http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/pgm_accountability/ayp/public_schools_A_D.html

I looked at it, but have to readily admit, I don't have any idea what most of it is about except that from the best I can net out, BFA-Fairfax did very well.

[Scott Lang]

Hi Henry and All,

The website for the Department of Education lists the high school as one unit and the elementary and middle schools as another unit. This is because we receive funding through the federal government called Title 1 funds which we use at the elementary and middle school level, but not at this high school. That is important because one of the sanctions for schools that do not make AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) includes restricting how that money can be used. We are only judged on overall scores, not any of the subgroups that also are indicators. Our sub groups are too small for a reliable sample. We have been working hard on our math and literacy performance for kids and our action plan shows this. The optimist in me says that the acceptable progress is evidence of that work. I also know that it is a fragile slope for all schools. Essentially our target is for all students to achieve or exceed the Vermont Standards which themselves are a very high level target, within ten years. That is the goal of NCLB and AYP. The best and clearest example of that progress is that five years ago, only about 25% of our high school students achieved or exceeded the standards in math. Our latest scores show more than half achieve or exceed the standard - quite an improvement and right on track for AYP. Unfortunately many states (Texas, Florida) have chosen to lower their standards so that more of their students achieve them. In Vermont, we would rather have challenging standards and live with the results of the measures used to judge schools Sorry this is a long answer but the whole thing is pretty complex. I also think you should know that at BFA we know we are accountable (and want to be) for AYP, but we are really working at creating the best possible learning experience for our students. Test scores will take care of themselves if we can do that.

Scott Lang, High School Principal