Vermont Has the Smartest Students? 
By Robert Skinner

For all but three years when I was educating special needs students from pre-K to third grade, I taught mathematics in Vermont - for 27 years at the middle and high school levels. The other day I had a fleeting sense of pride when I watched a WCAX segment that claimed - "Vermont has the Smartest Students." "Wow" - I thought to myself - "I had a small part in that success story!" The following day the Burlington Free Press ran its version of the good news, as did many other liberal print huts around the state. We still hear this news along the way. 

But my short-lived euphoria dwindled as quickly as it rose because the "good news" was not credible. For that claim to be valid, (I had some education in statistics) all 50 states would have to administer the exact same test to the same student populations in exact proportions. Then I thought that most Vermonters would not think about this. That being so, most Vermonters would likely feel a little less pain from that other more recent "bad news" that Vermonters are "number one" in being the most tax burdened people in the nation. Then my somewhat cynical part, no - let’s say the critical thinking part of my brain - lead me to think that there was more politics behind the "good news" than the handiwork of academic statistical analysts. 

So, why are these "smartest kids" reports coming around from the liberal Vermont press? I believe they are meant to simply help Vermont Democrats, in trouble this year and the criticism getting more intense lately as they have not focused on making changes to Act 68 - as they generally favor it. It seems the Democrats "new direction" for solving Vermont’s tax problems was one of global, if irrelevant, proportion. That’s right - Global Warming! On the other hand, Governor Douglas has been really working diligently to find property tax relief. And in spite of some Senate Democrats finally, finally agreeing with the Governor on "capping" school budgets, the Democrats in the House will very likely not go along with it. Therefore, Vermonters will have to endure more convulsions over rising taxes. 

But what if all that tax money actually produced the nation’s "smartest kids"? If Vermonters had that assurance wouldn’t it go along way to ease the pain and perhaps instill some pride in being a Vermont taxpayer? Wouldn’t Democrats benefit politically from this? I think it would and I believe the liberal press that favors Democrats is playing high stakes partisan politics. 

As linear logic goes, if Vermont is the "highest taxed state" and paying the highest per pupil then Vermont students should logically be the "smartest". And that's the story line here. As aforementioned and explained, the problem with these wild claims is that they are based on unreliable statistical comparisons. But hey - if you’re a liberal journalist or editor who favors Democrats ruling Vermont and want to help them out, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story". 

Take Shay Toten, the editor of the self-proclaimed independent minded Vermont Guardian gone bust in print and now only available on line. He has a story lauding Vermont's "smartest" students. Furthermore, Shay Toten, a rather frequent analyst on Vermont This Week, also claims that Vermont is the "Cleanest " State. Claiming to be the cleanest state also has real problems as we are down wind of all those Mid-West coal-burning plants. And consider the fact that Burlington does not appear on the 25 "Cleanest Cities" according to Money Magazine's just released selections. Shay Toten, and all Vermont liberal ilk propagating these story lines need something of a reality check. The fact is - NOT one Vermont city made Money Magazine's list - not one! 

Another point - if Vermont truly had the "smartest kids" in the nation, wouldn’t logic dictate that at least one Vermont city would be on Money Magazine’s top 25 cities of "The most Educated"? I’m confident it should but not one Vermont city made that list either - not even Burlington, Vermont. 

Returning to the Vermont as the hotbed for the nation's "smartest" kids - let me offer a few more thoughts to underscore this as very dubious. A few nights ago I heard Bill Bradley, a Rhodes Scholar and one time Democratic Presidential candidate in 2000, tell Charlie Rose on Rose's PBS political talk show, that education in America is less than mediocre when compared to the curriculums and student performance in other industrialized nations. Bradley was quick to cite the fact that every Chinese student must take some Advanced Placement courses and each student is expected to take calculus. Bradley then pointed out that only 13% of American high school students take calculus. Having taught HS math, and taken calculus in college, as my HS did not offer it way back when, I believe 13% is accurate. If Vermont does have the "smartest students" in the nation then compared to the academic performance of Chinese students then Vermont students would not fair well. In fact, over the years when statistical analysts make academic comparisons of American academic performance to the other industrialized nations, America ranks at or near the bottom.

I can say with credibility that middle school math students I taught in the 1970's were more self directed, more respectful and held to a much higher work ethic than the math students I taught in the mid to late 1990’s. In the 1970’s my typical middle school math class consisted of 24 students. Only a handful of these students needed any special assistance and all students were held to the same discipline policy and rules. In the late 1990’s as today, a typical math class had 18 students and approximately 30% of them were on an accommodated curriculum and/or a disciplinary accommodation. Being a math teacher, or any teacher, in the 1970’s was a far more positive, much less stressful experience than in the late 1990’s or today. In the 1970’s once a year we gave a standardized test, usually the Iowa test, that was administered throughout most of the country. Test results would return and the administrators and the teachers in all subject areas had a clear idea how our students ranked on a national basis. And more importantly educators knew what areas needed improvements. 

As I recall the students in my classes, and our school, generally performed better than 75% of the rest of students who took the test across the nation. That was considered to be quite acceptable. If Vermont students today are actually, in fact, the "smartest" in the nation then I think this is an incredible leap in academic achievement. However, this is very probably just wishful, political thinking based on wild statistical extrapolations of testing data because Vermont students are no longer partaking in national standardized testing. What kind of testing are they taking? 

Today Vermont administers the New England Common Assessment Program or NECAP test that made it debut in 2005. The only direct and real comparison of Vermont academic performance is limited to those students in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. That’s it. In a year the NECAP testing should be up and running in the three states. This will discount any meaningful academic performance comparisons to the vast majority of US states. Sure, some genius in statistical comparison might, might be able to cross reference analysis of the results to standard tests given to other states, but the reliability of any conclusions is not at all certain. 

Vermont students in grades 4 and 8 also take the National Assessment of Education Progress test (NAEP), which is administered to a national sample of students. This allows for viable comparisons of academic achievements. It is vital to have credible comparisons of just how Vermont students, and Vermont education, rates with other states. This allows Vermont educators, and education policy makers and creators of curricula, to find "best academic practices" to implement into Vermont schools and thus maximize the learning environment for Vermont’s youth. It is vital to have vigorous and challenging curricula if Vermont graduates and American graduates are to be competitive in the global economy. Isn’t this what Democratic leaders like Gaye Symington and Senate Pro-Tem Peter Shumlin tell us - that the most important issue facing Vermont today is Global Warming and facilitating Green Technologies with a vigorous, second to none education system with its eye on the prize for Vermonters - "jobs, jobs, jobs" for the Green future? What good is a watered-down, dumb-downed testing system going to do to advance that vision? 

Let’s go back to the most recent Vermont NAEP test results. Let’s look at one grade. Unfortunately, there's not a single State in which the public schools get their 4th graders to score better than the low 200's out of a possible 500, meaning that about 2/3 of 4th graders can't make "proficient" in reading at grade level, even in the so-called "best" States. Understandably, Vermont educator's and the VT-NEA recoil from publicizing these results. This does not fit well with the "smartest state" propaganda that I believe is motivated by politics. The Vermont liberal media favors liberalism as propagated by the Democratic Party and the VT-NEA contributes cash and literature advocating for the election of all Democrats - no matter what office they are running. 

Let's be realistic here; soberly so. Vermont’s academic prowess cannot be compared reliably to that of the other 49 states and anyone who tries and claims "Vermont has the smartest students" is engaging in dishonest politics. Just forget the other 49 states. Academic achievement in Vermont and all the other states needs to be compared to the academic achievement of other industrialized nations. They are the ones that count in the real world, outside that of political manipulation. And unfortunately and likely because of the NEA and its powerful lobbying and partnership with the Democratic Party, America does not have a "world class education system." The hard fact, the one nobody can deny, is that America and Vermont too will come out at the bottom or near to it when compared to nations like China, France, South Korea, England, Germany, Sweden, Japan and on and on. If it can be said that Vermont is the smartest state then Vermont is but a dunce on the world academic arena. 

But if WCAX, the Burlington Free Press and Shay Toten, and his ilk, hold tight to this idea, this myth, that Vermont is the "Smartest State" and propagating it to the public to assuage their pain over crushing taxes, then all these liberal media types are in that other state of mind - La La land. To all liberal journalists and editors on the beat for liberal Democrats in trouble with the People - time to go back to school - not the school of journalism where you learned your stock and trade - but to a real education on the real streets in the towns and cities of Vermont. So go forth and get the "facts - nothing but the facts" and report it to the people who deserve the truth. With it, they can make "best choices" in the coming important elections.

Robert Skinner is an editor of TrueNorthRadio.com

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