State Education Chief Hands Vernon its Bottom 30 Criteria

Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway put it plainly.

"This is how we were identified in the 30 lowest performing districts."

What state Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor is calling Connecticut's "new accountability system" was distributed by Conway at Monday's Board of Education meeting.

Officially, it is called both the District Performance Index and the School District Profiles. 

"It shows where our challenges are," said Board of Education Chairman Dean Houle.

The index is based on standardized tests, but it also points out several other areas that need improvement.

Conway spend a few minutes addressing the graduation rate, which is not even in the mid-80 percent total for both the four-year and extended students. 

She says it needs to be 96 percent in both categories.

The school system has a 12-year period under its state-granted waiver of the federal No Child Left Behind Requirements, but the goals are steep and math, reading, writing and science are all being treated equally.

The full report, filed with the town on Aug. 1, is attached. Monday was the first regular meeting of the nee academic year, so the report was released then.

Vernon has been ranked 26th from the bottom by state officials, mostly because of test performance.