77 Questions : A students’ view of Vermont’s flexible pathways

“77 Questions” is the Underground Workshop’s collaborative reporting challenge for the 2022-2023 college 12 months. Our first workshop will probably be Thursday, November 17 at 7:30pm. College students and lecturers: Please register right here to obtain extra info.

Twin Enrollment.  

Private Studying Plans.  

Early Faculty. 

Proficiency-based Commencement.  

These phrases could not imply a lot to some Vermonters, however they characterize probably the most substantial adjustments to our excessive faculties in a era.  

They entered our vocabulary in 2013, when Vermont’s state authorities handed  Act 77,  a legislation “encouraging versatile pathways to secondary completion.”

Every of those phrases will elicit its personal vary of responses from Vermont’s lecturers, counselors and directors.  You will get one other set of impressions from dad and mom.  And for those who point out these matters amongst highschool college students, they may have lots to say.  

That is what occurred at a gathering of the Underground Workshop this summer time, when considered one of our scholar editors prompt proficiency-based commencement as a possible subject for this 12 months’s collaborative reporting challenge. 

There was a variety of vitality within the dialogue, with some passionate opinions. The scholars described an expansive new array of studying alternatives introduced by these insurance policies, and likewise some challenges.

The historical past of Act 77 is sophisticated. It took quite a few years for the legislation’s influence to take form, and the adjustments look completely different in several college communities. By 2019 there was lots to rejoice, and likewise some lingering questions. Then the pandemic paused the dialog.

Act 77 will probably be ten years previous subsequent summer time. This college 12 months, as our excessive faculties search to regain their footing, it appears like a becoming time to ask:

What do versatile pathways and proficiency-based studying appear to be in apply, throughout Vermont? 

How have these insurance policies impacted college students’ experiences in our excessive faculties?   

And most significantly: What do the scholars need to say? 

The Underground Workshop invitations Vermont’s college students to discover these questions on this 12 months’s collaborative reporting challenge, “77 Questions.”

As with our collaborative challenge for final 12 months, the Local weather Report Card, our objective right here is constructive. We’re not making an attempt to situation any judgments, simply to assemble quite a few concrete, on-the-ground tales about scholar experiences. The aim is to tell readers, enrich the dialogue about our faculties, and empower scholar voices.

The facility of collaborative reporting comes from its comparative method. We hope we will contain a various vary of scholars, from completely different corners of the state and from faculties giant and small. Please assist us unfold the phrase.

College students: You do not want any a scholar newspaper at your college or any reporting expertise to take part. You will have help from the scholar editors of the Underground Workshop, and there are many methods to contribute, giant and small. Subsequent week we’ll publish extra particulars concerning the challenge, with an instance of a small article, from two of our scholar editors at BFA St. Albans.

Our first workshop will probably be an open assembly for college students on November 17, facilitated by the Underground Workshop’s scholar editors. Lots of the particulars are usually not set in stone, and we’re keen to listen to your concepts.

College students and lecturers, please register right here to obtain extra info.

(The Underground Workshop can also be to help college students publishing other forms of tales. An outline of our previous work, with numerous examples, is right here.)