The yardstick — every “vs state” number here is measured against a Vermont average that has itself slipped: well above the country on the national test a decade ago, at or below it in three of four checks by 2024.
The yardstick · Vermont vs the nation · 2003–2024
The Vermont average is a moving mark.
Fair warning before you lean on the grey line: on the one test given the same way in every state, Vermont's lead over the country has mostly gone — while Vermont spends $28,818 a pupil, about $1.64 for every U.S. dollar.
Solid line: Vermont. Dashed: the U.S. public-school average. The band between them is Vermont's lead — sage while ahead, rust where behind. One scale point is roughly a tenth of a grade level.
2024 · significantly below the U.S.
2024 · about even
2024 · still significantly above — the only significant lead left
2024 · about even — fell 6.5 pts since 2022
The rest of the country slipped too. Vermont slipped further, from higher up.
NAEP Data Service (scores 2003–2024, pulled Jul ’26) · NCES 2024 state snapshots (significance) · Census F-33 (spending, FY24) · NCES Digest 219.46 (graduation, ’21-22) · NCES/AOE (college, ’22/’24) · AOE + Attendance Works (absence, ’23-24). State-level figures — NAEP does not sample enough students to score single districts.
Who the districts serve — share of low-income students
Two eras, two measures. The lines through 2024-25 show the free/reduced-lunch (FRL) share of English test-takers. The Vermont Agency of Education itself says FRL "may not be an equivalent metric of student poverty." The 2022 dip and the 2024-25 jumps do not mean poverty changed. They come from universal school meals and a Medicaid direct-certification pilot. The ◆ marks at ’24-25 use a different measure: the Act 127 low-income share. It counts students certified through SNAP, Reach Up, foster care, or Medicaid, at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. It comes from AOE's Long-Term Weighted ADM file. The state now uses this measure for funding. This page's expectation view uses it from 2023-24 onward.
Student population
Why the early grades matter. This year's kindergarten class is the next decade's student body: a small entering class moves up one grade per year, so today's K count previews enrollment, staffing and building needs years before they arrive. Comparing the entering class with total enrollment shows whether a district's future is bigger or smaller than its present.% change view: every district starts at 0% in its first year on the chart and its line shows the cumulative change since then, so different-sized districts can be compared fairly — the line that falls fastest is shrinking fastest, regardless of size. The dashed line is Vermont.
Counts are fall average daily membership, rolled up from every school reporting under the district's supervisory union.
The entering class is tomorrow's enrollment: each small kindergarten class ripples upward grade by grade, previewing student population and facilities needs a decade out. Counts come from the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) Vermont Education Dashboard enrollment dataset. The 2017–18 school year is a deliberate gap: in the published workbook every school's 2017–18 counts run roughly 1.8× their adjacent years — a fault in the source data, not a real enrollment spike — so the charts break rather than show the corrupted year. 2018–19 through 2020–21 rows are published without district labels and are re-attached here by school.
Total K-12 enrollment
Property wealth per student
rank among peers →The numbers — property wealth per student
Property wealth per student is the equalized value of the district's grand list divided by its enrollment — when a wealthy district shrinks, the wealth behind each remaining student climbs. In the % change view every line starts at 0% in its first charted year and shows the cumulative change since; the dollars view shows each year's level. Dollars are inflation-adjusted (CPI-U) to constant recent dollars; the dashed line is Vermont. Not spending capacity: education taxes pool statewide under Act 68.
Every system in this tool — 148 entries, districts and supervisory unions alike
Addison Central SU, Addison Northwest SD, Alburgh, Arlington, Athens Grafton SD, Averill, Avery's Gore, Barre SU, Barstow Unified Union School District, Bennington Rutland SU, Blue Mountain Union U021, Brighton, Buels Gore School District, Burlington SD, Cabot, Caledonia Central SU, Caledonia Cooperative SD 78, Cambridge School District, Canaan, Central Vermont SU, Champlain Islands Unified Union Sch District 66, Champlain Valley SD, Charleston, Colchester SD, Coventry, Craftsbury, Danville, Derby, Echo Valley Community Sch District, Elmore-morristown Unified Union School District, Enosburgh-richford Unified Union Sch District 88, Essex North SU, Essex Westford SD, Fairfax, Ferdinand School District, First Branch USD 82, Fletcher, Franklin Northeast SU, Franklin West SU, Georgia, Glastenbury School District, Grand Isle SU, Granville-hancock USD 80, Greater Rutland County SU, Green Mountain UHSD #35, Halifax, Hartford SD, Hartland, Harwood Unified Union Supervisory District, Holland, Ira School District, Jay, Kingdom East SD, Lake Region Union Elem-middle SD, Lamoille North Musd U058a, Lamoille North Musd U058b, Lamoille North SU, Lamoille South SU, Lewis, Lincoln SD, Lowell, Ludlow-mt. Holly UUSD, Maple Run SD, Marlboro, Mettawee SD 84, Mill River Unified Union Supervisory District, Milton SD, Missisquoi Valley School District, Montpelier Roxbury SD, Morgan, Mountain View UESD, Mountain Views SU, Mt Abraham Unified School District, Mt Mansfield Unified Union School District, Mt. Anthony UHSD #14, Mt. Ascutney SD, Newport City, Newport Town, North Bennington ID, North Country SU, Northeast Kingdom Choice SD 65, Northern Mountain Valley UUSD, Norwich, Orange East SU, Orange Southwest SD, Orleans Central SU, Orleans Southwest SU, Otter Valley USD 53, Oxbow UUSD, Paine Mountain Sch District, Peacham, Pittsfield, Quarry Valley UUSD 70, Readsboro, Rivendell Interstate SD, River Valleys Unified School District, Rochester- Stockbridge 81, Rockingham School District, Rutland City SD, Rutland Northeast SU, Rutland Town, Sandgate, Sau 70, Searsburg, Sharon, Slate Valley UUSD, Somerset, South Burlington SD, South Hero, Southwest Vermont SU, Springfield SD, St Johnsbury SD, Stamford, Stannard, Stowe, Strafford, Stratton, Taconic & Green Regional SD 63, Thetford, Troy, Twin Valley USD 75, Twinfield USD U033, Two Rivers SU, Vernon School District, Waits River Valley USD U036, Warner's Grant, Warren Gore, Washington Central SU, Weathersfield, Wells Spring UUSD 69, West River MUED 72a, West River MUED 72b, West River MUED A, West River MUED B, Westfield, Westminster, White River USD 79, White River Valley SU, Windham, Windham Central SU, Windham Northeast SU, Windham Southeast SU, Windham Southwest SU, Windsor Southeast SU, Winhall, Winooski ID, Winooski SD, Wolcott.
Entries follow the state's own records, so a few systems appear under more than one source-era name (Winooski SD and ID; the West River MUED sides), and Norwich's Dresden interstate district reports through New Hampshire's SAU 70.
Suppressed cells (⊘) are withheld in the source for student privacy — they are unknown, not zero. ▲ on a chart's axis marks a district's first year under new governance (Act 46 mergers and later withdrawals) — earlier values describe predecessor districts. Sources: Vermont Agency of Education (assessment dashboards, per-pupil spending reports, graduation rates); assembled and normalized in an open pipeline — code, methods, and data at vermont-public-education-data. Prototype — data embedded as of July 2026 · build 99e74982.