The price of an American liberal arts education continues to soar. But, in return for the $50,000 or more that many are collecting per student per year, do colleges need to offer better value in what they’re teaching? Yes, says Bennington College President Elizabeth Coleman.

Vermont is slated to get $19 million to save hundreds of teacher jobs, under legislation passed by the U.S. House. The $26 billion emergency aid passed on Tuesday also contains $37 million to extend for six months increased Medicaid payments to Vermont. The funding comes as schools throughout Vermont are facing cuts recommended by the state.

The Vermont Department of Education is joining 30 other states in an effort to create national standards to measure what students know. Vermont and the other states are asking for millions of dollars in federal grant money to develop the program that will allow the states to use a common set of standards in math and English. The Rutland Herald says the grant could be worth as much as $160 million for all the states.

The Community College of Vermont is planning a $4 million expansion of its Montpelier headquarters. The project will include 12,000 square feet of classroom space in the former Woodbury College campus on Elm Street north of downtown. The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reported that it could be several years before construction begins.

Vermont's standardized testing regime could be headed for the dustbin. State officials announced Wednesday they hope to join forces with at least 30 other states to develop a new, uniform testing program for public school students to be in use by 2015. The current New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) would be phased out, and so would the paper and pencils students use to take it.

Vermont schools must do more to help special-education students set post-secondary goals, and the Vermont Education Department needs to ensure this transition planning takes place. That's one of the conclusions the U.S. Education Department reached in an annual review of Vermont's compliance with federal special-education law. Among other things, the review found Vermont was deficient in ensuring timely initial evaluations of students seeking special-education services and in submitting timely and accurate data to the federal government.

According to the Vermont Department Of Education, 2008 graduation rates among the state's high schools ranged from a low of under 70% to a high of 100%.  The dropout rate is especially high in schools with children from low-income families.  The disparity in rates - and the demographics of the the problem - are something educators in Vermont are trying to address. 

Good, dirty fun prompted a parade of fourth- and fifth-graders to stop traffic on Pine Street in Burlington in late May. The kids toted nets, rubber wading boots and clipboards.“Get wet and get studying,” announced their teacher, Matt Hajdun. Hajdun’s students had been eyeing the lake, their creek and their community for the better part of the school year. Their efforts were funded by the Lake Champlain Basin Program. Among the common goals: getting outside.Another goal: Cleaner water for the next generation. “We really wanted kids to recognize that they have a voice in making sure the lake remains healthy,” Hajdun said.

Thirty-one percent of Vermont public schools missed the academic progress benchmark set under a federal school-reform law designed to prod students to full proficiency in reading and math by 2014. The Vermont Education Department issued the annual report card for schools Tuesday as required under the No Child Left Behind Act. Once again most of the 94 schools that did not make adequate yearly progress had significant populations of low-income and disabled students.

Four out of 10 Vermont schools tagged in March by the state as "persistently low-achieving" and eligible for more federal aid because of the designation have agreed to apply for the funding. The letters of intent to seek a piece of $8.5 million in federal stimulus dollars for education are trickling into the Vermont Department of Education, even though the department's commissioner said the option the schools are choosing — a transformation model that requires the firing of the principal in some cases — isn't favorably looked on by state education officials.

Update on Friday, May 14, 2010 at 10:25AM by VCF Staff

The Fair Haven Union High School Board will apply to the state for between $300,000 and $500,000 in federal money to improve its students' academic performance.

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The Mount Anthony Union School Board is taking the first steps toward answering the question, "What do we want our students to know and be able to do by graduation?" The School Board is working to renew its accreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and move to a "zero-based" budgeting process for fiscal year 2012. Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Superintendent Catherine McClure explained that answering the question about where they wanted students to be would help guide the process of zero-based budget creation. McClure said the board and district would be "creating a whole new middle school and high school environment."

Vermont will not seek millions of dollars in a federal grant program aimed at improving failing schools, joining a handful of states in dropping out of the "Race to the Top" program despite strapped budgets. The competitive grant requires states to link teacher pay to student performance and invest in charter schools, which would require policy and legislative changes in Vermont, commissioner Armando Vilaseca said Monday. After spending hundreds of hours reviewing the application and program, the state will not apply, Vilaseca said.

Rutland Middle School students won't have recess, class times will be longer and there will be a mandatory extra help period beginning next school year. School administrators and the Rutland School Board are backing a plan that will change students' schedules at the start of the 2010-11 school year — one that includes eight-minute-longer classes and students taking core classes such as English, math and science at different times during the school week. The intent is to improve student performance and make the most of teacher instruction, according to John Beerworth, a physical education teacher at the school who is part of a committee that studied the prospect of a new schedule for more than a year.

A new Windham Regional Career Center program is being recognized as one way to help transform high school education across New England. The career center, and Milton High School, have been chosen to represent Vermont at a regional conference this week. Representatives from Windham Regional Career Center will be at the New England Secondary School Consortium on April 9 in Nashua, N.H., to talk about the school’s collegiate high school program that allows high school students to take college courses and receive college credits which can be transferred upon graduating high school.

For parents seeking a quality education for their children without paying exorbitant housing prices, South Burlington is the place to be, according to Forbes. The magazine published a list of America's "25 best schools for the housing buck" Tuesday, which ranked South Burlington fourth in the $200,000- $399,999 category. Forbes sought to show parents where children could receive the best education by ranking the five best school districts in five ranges of home prices. Edina, Minn., earned the No. 1 spot in South Burlington's price range.