Teacher fail

Burlington VT

10 November, 2021

8:39 AM

Description

Standardized test results from this spring are in and they show drops across the board from pre-pandemic levels that were just as abysmal. An "expert" WCAX-TV spoke with insists the declines are COVID-related and prove students need to be in the classroom. "The learning environment was just not conducive to high performance in any way," said Ellen Baker, the University of Vermont's educator-licensure-program director. Baker claims the pandemic has been traumatizing for students and impacted learning. "People cannot be available to learn if they are traumatized," she opined. That appears to be reflected in statewide standardized testing scores released by the Vermont Agency of Education. They show that students who participated in the tests last spring did even worse than usual. When comparing 2019 pre-pandemic SBAC scores against 2021, math proficiency - which was already in the tank - saw double-digit declines. For third grade, scores dropped to 41% from 52%. Fifth grade dropped to 30% from 41%; and eighth grade to 31% from 42 %. When it comes to English, the failure rates are still prevalent. Third grade dropped to 42% from 50%; fifth grade to 49% from 56%: and eighth grade to 51% from 53%.