Vermont’s incoming high school seniors are expected to be the first class across the state to graduate under a new set of standards — one that emphasizes achieving “proficiency” in key skills.
The change, part of a major effort to overhaul Vermont’s education system, is required by state regulations.
But more than half of the 1,000 educators who responded to an online survey by Vermont-NEA feel like they don’t have adequate resources to implement the mandate.
The union presented the results of the survey, conducted in mid-April, to state officials last week.
A pivot to proficiency-based learning came to Vermont as part of a spate of reforms intended to make schools more student-centered, with an emphasis on customization, flexibility, and project-based work. Many schools have embraced the change, but it has been controversial in many communities.
NEA president Don Tinney, an English teacher at BFA-St. Albans, had previously told state officials his impression was that schools had been vastly inconsistent in their approaches to the mandate. He told State Board of Education members last week the survey largely echoed this.
“We definitely are all over the map in terms of the experience that our members have,” he said.
Proficiency-based learning (or, as it is known elsewhere, competency-based learning) is intended to represent a marked change in how learning is measured. In a proficiency-based system, students are supposed to have multiple ways to demonstrate their abilities. Schools can offer opportunities to retake tests, and grading is tied to clear standards — not to how well others perform.
But an oft-repeated concern about proficiency-based learning is that giving students several opportunities to take tests or turn in work encourages procrastination. And in the survey, 72% of respondents said students work ethic had decreased.
Meanwhile, although it isn’t required, most schools have changed how grades are reported. Many schools have ditched the traditional A to F system in favor of a 1-4 metric. Report cards often include information about how students are doing on particular skills in each class, and can run several pages long.
Tinney also told the State Board he worried conversations about grading had sidelined more important discussions about how to change on-the-ground pedagogy and clarify learning goals.
“People spent hours trying to figure out new computer programming for the grading and the reporting of the grading as opposed to, what were students actually doing,” he said.
During the last legislative session, Tinney had asked lawmakers to consider postponing the 2020 deadline, saying that implementation appeared to be extremely uneven across the state. But Dan French, the secretary of education, said the agency wasn’t taking a hardline approach to enforcing the target date and instead focusing on offering support and feedback to schools. The NEA withdrew the request, and state officials haven’t moved to change the date.
In the survey:
- 51% of respondents said they did not receive adequate professional development in transitioning to proficiency-based grading
- 56% said they had inadequate resources to implement it
- 37% said they had received fewer than 2 hours of training; another 27% said they had received between 2 and 5 hours of training
- 69% of respondents said parents did not have a clear understanding of their children’s learning
- 47% said content knowledge had decreased
View the full results below:
Read the story on VTDigger here: Union survey finds teachers feel unprepared for proficiency-based learning.