MVU scores for Abenaki at new high
Written By Leon Thompson

Friday, November 06, 2009

Ed. subgroup off state’s watch list

SWANTON –– Abenaki students at Missisquoi Valley Union High School (MVU) have reached a turning point in regard to mandated tests.

    For the past two years, MVU’s Abenaki of Missisquoi students have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in standardized test scores, and are the first of MVU’s three student subgroups to be removed from state’s school improvement status.

    The news has generated cause for celebration at MVU, particularly the Abenaki of Missisquoi community, which has struggled for years with poor test scores.

    “This is a big deal,” said Jeff Benay, Title V Indian Education coordinator. “If the Abenaki kids can get off the list, what it now says is there’s no excuse that kids all over the state can be off this list.”

    With the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the federal government set a goal of having all children performing at grade level by 2014. Consequentially, each Vermont school was given a specific number of children who needed to perform at grade level each year.

    Each year, that number grows. Ken Page, of the Vermont Principal’s Association, recently said that, because of NCLB requirements, all schools would be identified as needing improvement.

       In addition to having targets for the overall student body, schools with more than 40 students in specific sub-groups must make AYP for those sub-groups as well. The sub-groups include students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students (defined as those receiving free or reduced school lunches), and ethnic minorities – such as the Abenaki.
   
    Twenty-two percent of the 1,150 students at MVU are Abenaki. Students in grades seven, eight and 11 excelled in reading and math, according to 2008 test results.
   
    State education data shows that at MVU, students in the “American Indian/Alaskan Native” category made AYP in reading and math. Students on free and reduced lunch made AYP in reading, but not math.
   
    Benay said it is rare for racial or ethnic groups nationwide to be taken off the improvement status list. MVU’s Abenaki students might be one of few – if not the only – subgroups in Vermont taken off the identified list this year.
  
   Chaunce Benedict, former MVU principal, started improvement efforts during his tenure. Bob Pequignot, current principal, implemented them with a different communication style, Benay explained.
   
   In the early part of this decade, Benay and other Missisquoi Abenaki leaders noticed first and second graders within the tribe were excelling in reading, but something broke down by the time they reached middle school at MVU.
   
    About five years ago, Benay discovered middle school staffers at MVU weren’t trained to teach reading. In addition to creating staff development, the school hired a top-notch reading specialist – a former Massachusetts teacher of the year – for middle-schoolers.
   
    “MVU picked up on what it wasn’t doing, and that was teaching reading,” Benay said.
    
    The school took the same approach with math: start at the elementary level and fill in the cracks between there and the time students reached MVU, so that students couldn’t fall through them.
   
    “What we have in 2009 looks completely different than what we had in 2000,” Benay said. “But there’s no magic bullet. There’s no silver bullet in all this.”
  
    MVU is still an identified school, because it has at least 40 students in special education programs, and at least another 40 receiving free or reduced lunch.
  
    What NCLB didn’t take into account was the economy. Strong, educated, middle-class families have resorted to free and reduced lunch for children in the house, because they have not other choice in the current economy.
  
    As the percentage of students on free and reduced lunch rises, the subgroup grows, making it more difficult for it and their respective schools to come off the identified list.
  
    But among Missisquoi Abenaki students, self-esteem has improved, absenteeism has plummeted, and they are volunteering for numerous school and community projects – by the dozen.
   
    “MVU is heading in the right direction,” Benay said. “For the first time in a long time, the school has turned a corner. I never thought I’d be around to say that.”

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