据VTDigger报道，佛蒙特州教育部长佐伊·桑德斯表示，佛蒙特州花了将近八年时间错误地选择需要州资源来解决扩大的成绩差距的学校。该州今年春天自己发现了错误，并在数小时内向联邦政府报告了这一错误——然后数月杳无音信。
CHARLOTTE OLIVER/VTDigger Vermont spent nearly eight years incorrectly choosing schools that needed state resources to address widening achievement gaps, according to Zoie Saunders, Vermont’s secretary of education. The state caught the error itself this spring and reported the mistake to the federal government within hours — then heard nothing for months.
随后，在九月，美国教育部官员将佛蒙特州列为一项4100万美元拨款的“高风险”对象，要求该州立即纠正错误，否则将面临10万美元的罚款。
Then, in September, officials from the U.S. Department of Education designated Vermont as “high risk” on a $41 million grant, demanding the state immediately fix the mistakes or risk a $100,000 penalty.
现在，佛蒙特州官员正在反对这一认定。他们计划发送一封信，称该认定“过早”，并要求联邦政府在该州纠正错误的同时重新考虑，而该错误有时会导致该州将资源投向最不需要资源的学校。
Now, Vermont officials are pushing back on that designation. They plan on sending a letter that calls the designation “premature” and asks the feds to reconsider while they fix the error, which at times directed the state to focus resources on schools that needed it the least.
“这一切都源于我们非常真诚且专注地致力于缩小学生成绩差距，”桑德斯在一次采访中表示，指的是该州发现了自身的错误。
“All of this came out of our very sincere and focused commitment on closing achievement gaps for students,” Saunders said in an interview, referring to the state catching its own errors.
涉及的这笔数百万美元拨款是一项第1类拨款，该州获得该拨款以支持经济困难学生。桑德斯表示，作为换取资金，联邦法律要求该州识别表现不佳的学校，并相应地解决不平等问题。
The multimillion dollar grant in question is a type of Title 1 grant, which the state receives to support economically disadvantaged students. In exchange for the funds, federal law requires the state to identify underperforming schools and address inequalities accordingly, Saunders said.
联邦官员的干预揭示了佛蒙特州多年来在决定哪些学校需要州干预以解决不平等问题时所犯的一系列错误。桑德斯表示，这些错误是她担任部长之前就存在的一个复杂且繁琐的过程造成的。她说，该机构正在努力纠正任何错误，以符合联邦官员的要求。
The intervention from federal officials sheds light on a series of errors that Vermont made for years when deciding which schools needed state intervention to address inequities. Saunders said the errors are the result of a complicated and burdensome process that precedes her time as secretary. She said the agency is working to solve any errors to comply with federal officials’ demands.
“佛蒙特州应该在被贴上高风险标签之前，有机会满足我们被赋予的期限，”州长菲尔·斯科特在州教育机构的一份新闻稿中表示。
“Vermont should have the opportunity to meet the deadlines we’ve been given before being labeled high risk,” Gov. Phil Scott said in a press release from the state Agency of Education.
美国基础教育办公室助理部长柯尔斯滕·贝斯勒在致佛蒙特州官员的信中写道：若缺乏联邦层面的监督，该州的整改计划将耗时过久。
Assistant U.S. Secretary to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Kirsten Baesler wrote in her letter to Vermont officials that — absent federal oversight — Vermont’s corrective plan would take too long.
“按照佛蒙特州拟定的时间表，该州在数年内都无法满足《第一条款A部分》的各项核心要求，”贝斯勒指出。据悉，佛蒙特州原计划于2028年秋季完成整改计划。
“(Vermont’s) proposed timeline would leave the State out of compliance with central aspects of Title I, Part A requirements for several years,” Baesler wrote, noting the state planned to have its plan corrected by fall of 2028.
上周，该州教育部门获得了佛蒙特州教育委员会的一致批准，得以向联邦官员致信，请求重新评估该州的评级结果。
Officials at the state education agency got unanimous approval from the Vermont Board of Education last week to write a letter to federal officials, asking them to reconsider Vermont’s designation.
州教育委员会代理主席塔米·科尔比在接受采访时称，该部门主动发现了相关问题，并一直在积极着手解决。
The agency proactively identified the problems and has been actively working to address them, said Tammy Kolbe, acting chair of the state board, in an interview.
“我认为，州教育委员会上周作出的决议表明，我们坚信这些举措具有重要意义，”科尔比说道。
“I think the State Board’s resolution last week signals that we believe that those actions matter,” Kolbe said.
2015年《每个学生都成功法案》颁布后，识别表现不佳学校的流程也发生了变化。桑德斯指出，该联邦法律赋予了各州更大的自主权来制定衡量学校表现的标准，但也使得整个流程变得更为复杂。
The process for identifying underperforming schools changed following the passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. Saunders said that federal law gave states more flexibility to determine their own metrics for school success — but also made the process complicated.
“判断一所学校表现是否良好，本不该需要统计专家来操作，”桑德斯说道。
“It shouldn’t take a statistician to identify whether or not a school is performing well,” Saunders said.
新联邦法律实施后，佛蒙特州于2017年和2018年制定了识别需要帮扶学校的新方法，该方案也获得了联邦政府的批准。
Following the passage of the new federal law, Vermont created a new methodology for identifying schools in need of support in 2017 and 2018. And the federal government approved Vermont’s new plan.
不过据桑德斯介绍，新方案采用的方法存在缺陷，导致对表现不佳学校的判定出现偏差，而这些问题一直未被联邦政府察觉。
But the new plan used a flawed methodology that incorrectly identified which schools were underperforming, according to Saunders, and the issues went undetected by the federal government.
这些错误多年来不断累积，有时甚至导致相关政策与原本设定的目标背道而驰。
The errors snowballed over years and at times the policy was at odds with its intended goals.
贝斯勒在信中还提到，此前在2024年，由于涉及识别表现不佳学校的相关拨款报告存在问题，佛蒙特州曾被联邦政府评定为“高风险”地区。
Vermont previously received a “high risk” designation in 2024 for separate grant reporting issues related to identifying underperforming schools, Baesler noted in her letter.
她总结了佛蒙特州最近发现的错误所带来的后果：“在提升表现差距方面取得进步的学校被标记为（需要资源），而表现差距扩大的学校则未被标记，”她写道。
She summed up the consequences of Vermont’s recently identified mistakes: “Schools that made progress to improve performance gaps were identified as (needing resources), while schools with widening performance gaps were not identified,” she wrote.
桑德斯表示，该州在二月份进行内部审查时首次发现了这些错误。在发现错误几小时内，她就向全州的学区总监发出了通知，随后又向联邦教育部门发出了警报，她说。之后，该州再未收到任何回应。
Saunders said the state first caught the errors in February while it was doing an internal review. Within hours of identifying the mistakes, she notified superintendents across the state, then alerted the federal education department, she said.
州官员决定改革追踪学校表现的方法论以纠正这些错误。根据桑德斯的说法，州官员在七月份向联邦官员提交了一份整改计划。
Then the state heard nothing.
“我们发现的问题是通过自我诊断发现的。这是通过我们自身的质量保证流程发现的，”桑德斯说。
State officials decided to overhaul the methodology to track school performance to correct the mistakes. In July, state officials sent a remediation plan to federal officials, according to Saunders.
联邦警告对纠正行动设定了一系列期限。该机构必须在12月15日前制定一种新的方法论，用于识别需要支持的学校。而该州必须在2025-26学年之前，即一月份前，应用其新的方法论。
“What we uncovered was through a self-diagnosis. It was through our own quality assurance process,” Saunders said.
如果未能满足这些期限，该州可能会损失10万美元的拨款资金，并面临新的行政负担，桑德斯如此表示。
The federal warning imposes a number of deadlines for corrective action. The agency is required to create a new methodology for identifying schools that need support by Dec. 15. And the state must apply its new methodology for the 2025-26 school year by January.
此故事最初由VTDigger发表，并通过与美联社的合作伙伴关系进行分发。
If it fails to meet those deadlines, it could lose $100,000 in grant funding and be subject to new administrative burdens, according to Saunders.