Springfield School District to receive $600,000 in federal funds

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — On Thursday, the state Agency of Education announced that Springfield School District will receive approximately $600,000 in additional federal funds spread out over the next three years. The extra allocation is connected to the state’s plan to address the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and is designated for enhancement of programs.

Under ESSA, states are now required to use standardized testing data to identify schools in need of improvement. In Vermont, as in many states across the country, students take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment in grades 3-9 in both English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics.

For this first annual snapshot, the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) chose to use a combination of raw data from the 2018 SBAC assessment and student growth over time. The AOE wanted to be sure to acknowledge the importance of student growth on the assessment from one year to the next, and not simply use one year of testing data to identify schools in need of improvement.

Based on 2018 data and growth over time, identified Vermont schools will be labeled as either “comprehensive needs” schools or “equity” schools. Comprehensive needs schools have holistic areas in need of improvement whereas equity schools have a more specific area or areas to address. Approximately two-thirds of all Vermont schools have been identified in some way. The Vermont Agency of Education acknowledges that they are using data from 2018 and not the most recent testing data from 2019.

Last week, the AOE informed Springfield’s Superintendent Zach McLaughlin and Assistant Superintendent David Cohn that Riverside Middle School and Springfield High School have been identified as equity schools and that Elm Hill School has been identified as a comprehensive needs school. The high school was identified for performance gaps between students receiving free and reduced lunch benefits and their peers. Meanwhile, the middle school was similarly identified for performance gaps between students receiving free and reduced lunch and also students in special education programs. The AOE representatives praised Springfield for the amount of growth and improvement over time, surpassing growth at the state level in both ELA and mathematics. According to Cohn, “the 2019 SBAC data looks even more promising compared to our data from the past, particularly in ELA where our combined student average is the highest it’s ever been.” In a quirk of the system, Elm Hill School was labeled as a comprehensive needs school, despite the fact that its students fall outside the testing grades. “I had to ask folks at the AOE to explain how a non-testing school could possibly be identified,” said the superintendent. In Elm Hill’s case, the state looked at the collective scores of the district and awarded the elementary school additional support despite the fact that none of the district’s testing schools were labeled as comprehensive needs.

Elm Hill will receive approximately $200,000 over the next three years to go towards enhancing the educational experience of the district’s earliest learners. McLaughlin explained, “While Elm Hill’s ‘comprehensive’ designation feels flukey, it actually plays to our advantage. As a district, we have received the first look at our 2019 SBAC scores. It shows that we are in our second consecutive year of district-wide growth in English Language Arts. We probably would not qualify for these funds if the state was using the most current data. Simultaneously, these funds should only help us supercharge that growth trend.”

Elm Hill Principal Christine Pereira agreed, “As we continue to work hard to meet the needs of our K-2 students, receiving this additional financial support will bolster our ability to make a significant and lasting impact on students at Elm Hill School and, ultimately, across the school district.”