[Vermont] Bridging the Poverty Gap

from WCAX

Students living in poverty are not keeping up with their peers academically. That's according to the 2005 New England Common Assessment Program tests.

Almost all of the students at Lawrence Barnes Elementary School are considered poor and not faring well on standardized tests.

It's those students that education officials say need the most help.

The 2005 New England Common Assessment Program exams show that over half of students at Lawrence Barnes are not meeting performance standards in reading, writing and mathematics..

The low scores are hard on both the students and the teachers.

"You end up having to make the decision of how much should you teach to the test," said Anne Tewksbury-Frye, a teacher at the school.

Burlington's superintendent, educators and the community have now formed a task force to discuss how to better serve the poorer population of students.

"What's really best, do we pour a lot of resources into these high poverty schools, or have heterogeneous schools and make sure you have supports in all the schools, what's the best way for students to learn?" said Jeanne Collins, Burlington's superintendent of schools.

And what's best for taxpayers -- students in poverty cost more to educate than their peers simply because more resources are needed.

"Clearly, if we don't ... make a difference, if we don't expose kids to a number of opportunities are we creating a situation that won't change? And are we losing any of these kids who may go into the prison system or may tax society in other ways?" said Collins.

Bridging a gap between the socio-economic classes one community at a time.