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Public school data · every K-12 district · Vermont

District Outliers

Pick a district and see where it stands apart — today's standing, the direction of travel, and who stays through high school — against its 15 most similar systems or every Vermont K-12 system, unified districts and supervisory unions alike. A companion to the Comparer, which charts each measure year by year.

Compare against
Test scores

° = a supervisory union of several member districts (details in the notes)

1 · Where it stands today

Test scores default to standing vs demographic expectation — how far above or below the score you'd predict from its share of low-income students, in percentage points (“pts”). Vermont overall sits at zero because the expectation is set from the statewide pattern. Above or below this line is a comparison, not a rating of the school. Switch to actual values with the toggle above. Zero here is Vermont, not the nation — and Vermont’s own mark has slipped against the country over the past decade (see 4 · The yardstick).

Each grey dot is one Vermont K-12 system: its community's socioeconomic index (ACS composite) across, its score in grade levels vs the 2019 U.S. norm up. The sloped line is what communities like these typically score.

This describes the opportunities communities provide — not the ability of students or the effort of teachers.

2 · Direction of travel

Change over a fixed window — the current test for assessments, pre-pandemic to now for graduation, attendance, and college continuation, and roughly a decade for enrollment. Rate changes are in percentage points; enrollment changes in percent. Ranks reward improvement, not level.

3 · Who stays through high school

Of the students enrolled in grade 8, how many are still enrolled in grade 12 four years later — and where each grade-to-grade hand-off changed after the Act 46 reorganizations (average of cohorts before 2019-20 vs. after 2020-21).

Change in average grade-to-grade cohort retention, percentage points

AOE enrollment collections; predecessor districts summed onto a consistent town footprint. Transitions with fewer than three cohorts on either side are omitted.

4 · The yardstick itself

Sections 1–3 measure districts against each other and against the Vermont average. This one measures the Vermont average.

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.

Grade-4 math
230240250200320132024+8.7 · ’09−2.5 · ’24

2024 · significantly below the U.S.

Grade-4 reading
210220230200320132024+9.6 · ’03−1.6 · ’24

2024 · about even

Grade-8 math
270280290200320132024+11.9 · ’13+3.4 · ’24

2024 · still significantly above — the only significant lead left

Grade-8 reading
260270200320132024+12.0 · ’07+0.6 · ’24

2024 · about even — fell 6.5 pts since 2022

The rest of the country slipped too. Vermont slipped further, from higher up.

Spending per pupil · FY24 VT $28,818 · US $17,619 · 3rd of 51, behind New York and D.C.
4-yr graduation · ’21-22 VT 83% · US 87% · below the nation — only nine states lower
College continuation VT 46% within 16 months (class of ’24) · US 62% by the first fall (’22) · different windows, and Vermont's is the generous one — the real gap is wider
Chronic absence · ’23-24 VT 25% · US 24% · back to about even, after 42% in ’21-22

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.

Method. "15 most similar" means nearest by a combination of enrollment, share of low-income students (Act 127 direct certification, Fall 2024), and median family income (Census ACS 2019-23 town medians, family-weighted across member towns; family income rather than household income, so a capital city full of one-person households is not mistaken for a poor one) — the nearest third of the pool. Only systems operating K-12 with current data are compared — 46 in all, unified districts and supervisory unions alike. Six systems on the state's supervisory roster don't appear: Bennington Rutland, Grand Isle, and St. Johnsbury (schools through grade 8), Kingdom East (through grade 9), and Lincoln (through grade 6) operate no high school — their students tuition out, so K-12 measures like graduation, grade-12 enrollment, and college continuation don't exist at their grain — and Norwich belongs to the Dresden interstate district, which reports through New Hampshire's SAU 70. Ranks count the chosen district among its comparison group; for spending and property wealth the rank is descriptive ("Nth highest"), not a judgment.

Systems covered. Addison Central SU, Addison Northwest SD, Barre SU, Burlington SD, Caledonia Central SU, Central Vermont SU, Champlain Valley SD, Colchester SD, Essex North SU, Essex Westford SD, Franklin Northeast SU, Franklin West SU, Greater Rutland County SU, Hartford SD, Harwood Unified Union Supervisory District, Lamoille North SU, Lamoille South SU, Maple Run SD, Mill River Unified Union Supervisory District, Milton SD, Missisquoi Valley School District, Montpelier Roxbury SD, Mountain Views SU, Mt Abraham Unified School District, Mt Mansfield Unified Union School District, North Country SU, Orange East SU, Orange Southwest SD, Orleans Central SU, Orleans Southwest SU, Rivendell Interstate SD, Rutland City SD, Rutland Northeast SU, Slate Valley UUSD, South Burlington SD, Southwest Vermont SU, Springfield SD, Two Rivers SU, Washington Central SU, White River Valley SU, Windham Central SU, Windham Northeast SU, Windham Southeast SU, Windham Southwest SU, Windsor Southeast SU, Winooski SD.

Marked systems. A ° marks a supervisory union of several member districts (or a modified union with an independent member). Some member towns there tuition students to schools outside the union, so retention, grade transitions, and college continuation partly reflect that structure rather than families' choices alone. Per-pupil spending is a district-level figure and is not reported for these unions. The pool grew from 30 to 46 systems on July 11, 2026, when the low-income data sourcing was expanded to cover supervisory unions alongside unified districts (several unions' shares now reflect their full membership); the comparison group widened from 10 to 15 systems at the same time, keeping it the nearest third of the pool. Later on July 11 the town-income input switched from median household income to median family income — household income was penalizing systems whose towns have many one-person households. Analyses published before these dates used the earlier pool, group size, or income measure.

National figures. The yardstick section reads Vermont against the national public-school average: NAEP scale scores (the only test every state takes), Census F-33 spending, NCES graduation and college figures. On the strips, a slate U.S. marker appears for graduation and chronic absence (same federal definition) and for college continuation — there the federal figure counts only first-fall enrollment, a tighter window than this page’s 16 months, so the U.S. mark can only flatter Vermont’s numbers. The state-test strips carry no U.S. marker (they are Vermont’s own test; no national average exists for it), nor does spending (per weighted pupil here, not comparable to the federal per-pupil dollar); the national-standing strip carries the comparison instead, on the federal NAEP scale. "Significantly" follows the NCES 2024 state snapshots. The tenth-of-a-grade-level rule is a rough conversion — use it for magnitude, not precision. College windows differ (16-month vs first-fall), so the true gap is wider than the two numbers show. The Clearinghouse match behind the continuation measure misses apprenticeships, military service, and most sub-two-year certificate programs, so systems sending graduates into the trades read low.

Caveats. Chronic absenteeism comes from the state dashboard's own counts (both statuses); 2020-21 spans remote and hybrid attendance. College continuation covers regular-diploma graduates matched through the National Student Clearinghouse. Seniors in Vermont's Early College program are excluded from fall enrollment by statute, which depresses grade-12 counts where uptake is high. Enrollment windows cross Act 46 reorganizations; predecessor districts are summed.

Prototype — data embedded as of July 2026 · build 4935aa1b.

Sources: Vermont Agency of Education (assessments, enrollment, graduation, chronic absenteeism, Annual Snapshot, LTWADM) · U.S. Census Bureau ACS · The Vermont School District Comparer · code, methods, and data: vermont-public-education-data