Vermont education leaders back updated Education Quality Standards but warn implementation will take time and resources

The Vermont Senate and House Education Committees heard on Jan. 22, 2025, that the newly revised Education Quality Standards, adopted by the State Board of Education and ready for use in 2025, provide a statewide vision for what students should learn — but that translating the document into classroom practice will require time, funding and coordinated supports.

The standards update, speakers said, builds on prior revisions in 2014 and the state’s 2014 Act 77 flexible-pathways work, adds an explicit focus on transferable skills and reflects input gathered under 2019’s Act 1 working group. "The education quality standards answers that question" of what students should learn, Mike McCray, associate executive director of the Vermont Principals Association, told the joint hearing. He and other presenters urged policymakers to align agency guidance, continuous improvement plans and accountability tools around the updated rules to help schools implement them.

Committee members and presenters spent much of the hearing focused on practical follow-through. Dr. Andrew Jones, assistant superintendent for Mount Mansfield School District, said the document is not entirely new to educators but that "there's still kind of a pretty big gap between…