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Youth council reiterates statewide equity curriculum, reporting policies and ELL reassessment
Summary
The Vermont State Youth Council’s equity and anti-racism committee asked lawmakers to require model curriculum and policies on hate speech and racial equity, standardized reporting processes for discrimination, and a reassessment pathway for long-term ELL students.
Nisha Hickock, chair of the council’s equity and anti-racism committee, presented three sets of recommendations to the Senate Government Operations Committee on May 13 focused on school policy and English-language-learner (ELL) assessment.
The committee recommended that the Secretary of Education work with the ethnic and social equity in schools advisory working group to develop and maintain a model curriculum addressing hate speech and hateful imagery and a model policy on racial equity, then require local school boards to adopt policies at least as stringent as the state model.
The equity committee also recommended mandatory reporting systems and consistent educational consequences for actions “causing harm through an act of bias and prejudice,” with consequences designed by staff trained in diversity, equity and inclusion and alternatives to suspension such as restorative practices.
On ELL policy, the committee recommended that a student who scores a 4 in all language domains on the ACCESS for ELLs test for three consecutive years be reevaluated holistically by the school’s ELL teacher—surveying teachers, counselors and the student—before being required to continue testing. The committee also proposed making that reevaluation available after two consecutive years upon request.
Nisha Hickock said these steps would increase equitable access to education and reduce the burden on students who appear proficient in classroom work but are repeatedly held back by testing thresholds.
Committee members thanked the youth presenters and requested the slide deck; no formal legislative action was taken during the hearing.
