Education Commissioner
Looks for Answers
By Sara Nelson

A panel from the Vermont Board of Education, including Education Commissioner Richard Cate, meets with RTCC students to try to determine what is working in Vermont high schools (Herald / Tim Calabro)

State Education Commissioner Richard Cate believes it’s time for Vermont’s schools to undergo a "transformation."

His research into just what that transformation should look like brought him to Randolph Technical Career Center last Friday, where he had roundtable discussions with students, asking them to describe what’s working and what’s not working in their school.

The overwhelming consensus of the students in the discussion was that the tech center is doing a lot of things right.

As a transcriber recorded, Cate listened attentively to the personal stories of the students, many of whom said they were struggling in school until they came to the tech center, where for one or two years students can choose to learn one of a number of "trades," from auto mechanics to graphic design. The classes are smaller and less structured than classes in a traditional high school, and much of the learning is of the "hands-on" variety.

The students might not have been able to say exactly why the tech center works so much better for them than "regular school," but they passionately articulated the fact that it does.

"Here, I’m proud of what I’m accomplishing, and I don’t have to hide my report card anymore," said one girl.

A culinary arts student said she loved coming to school, and that the days "go so much quicker" here than in traditional high school. "You’re surprised when it’s time to go home," she said. The other students nodded in agreement.

When Cate asked the students for ways in which the school could be improved, one boy said that he’d had a problem with the way his transcript had been handled. Then the students reverted to enthusiastic praise of the school, saying they wished they could have come to the tech center for all four years rather than one or two.

The enthusiasm of the students seems to support Cate’s belief that alternative school set-ups have the potential of serving many students better than the current system does.

"The current model has been with us since the nineteenth century," Cate said.

"Although Vermont has one of the best systems in the country, about one third of our students are not achieving standards, and probably 15% aren’t being challenged. We’ve got kids going to high school who are not getting what they need, and it’s not the fault of the people in the system, it’s the fault of the system itself."

After hearing input from RTCC and several other schools around the state, Cate intends to draw up a series of recommendations for how the system can be reformed to address these shortcomings.

Cate said the proposal will likely involve changing state regulations to allow schools to create more alternative "learning environments," such as tech centers, co-ops, and online classes.

"One of the biggest problems is that we have kids with different learning styles, and some of them don’t learn well in traditional classrooms. We should allow schools to create alternatives that help these students, and get rid of regulations that get in the way of that," he said.

"As long as they’re learning what they need to learn, I don’t care how they’re learning it."

And what do they need to learn? Cate said that the transformation initiative is partially the result of a growing recognition that the skill set graduates need to succeed in the workplace is rapidly changing.

"The jobs for kids who have not learned problem-solving and creativity are now being done by machines or people in other countries," Cate said.

"We need to make sure that every kid has the opportunity to learn those skills."