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Public school data · every K-12 district · Vermont

District Outliers

Pick a district and see where it stands apart — today's standing, the direction of travel, and who stays through high school — against its ten most similar districts or every Vermont district running a K-12 system. A companion to the Comparer, which charts each measure year by year.

Compare against
Test scores

1 · Where it stands today

Latest reported year for each measure. The tall tick is the chosen district; dark ticks are its comparison group, faint ticks the rest of the K-12 field, and the caret is the Vermont average. Test scores default to standing vs demographic expectation — how far above or below the score a district's student mix would predict, with Vermont at zero by construction. Switch to actual values with the toggle above.

2 · Direction of travel

Change over a fixed window — the current test for assessments, pre-pandemic to now for graduation, attendance, and college continuation, and roughly a decade for enrollment. Ranks reward improvement, not level.

3 · Who stays through high school

Of the students enrolled in grade 8, how many are still enrolled in grade 12 four years later — and where each grade-to-grade hand-off changed after the Act 46 reorganizations (average of cohorts before 2019-20 vs. after 2020-21).

Change in average grade-to-grade cohort retention, percentage points

AOE enrollment collections; predecessor districts summed onto a consistent town footprint. Transitions with fewer than three cohorts on either side are omitted.

Method. "10 most similar" means nearest by a combination of enrollment, share of low-income students (Act 127 direct certification, Fall 2024), and median household income (Census ACS 2019-23 town medians, household-weighted across member towns). Only districts operating K-12 systems with current data are compared — 30 in all. Ranks count the chosen district among its comparison group; for spending and property wealth the rank is descriptive ("Nth highest"), not a judgment.

Caveats. Chronic absenteeism comes from the state dashboard's own counts (both statuses); 2020-21 spans remote and hybrid attendance. College continuation covers regular-diploma graduates matched through the National Student Clearinghouse. Seniors in Vermont's Early College program are excluded from fall enrollment by statute, which depresses grade-12 counts where uptake is high. Enrollment windows cross Act 46 reorganizations; predecessor districts are summed.

Prototype — data embedded as of July 2026 · build 76d6a89+ · 2026-07-11 02:37 UTC.

Sources: Vermont Agency of Education (assessments, enrollment, graduation, chronic absenteeism, Annual Snapshot, LTWADM) · U.S. Census Bureau ACS · The Vermont School District Comparer