Orleans Southwest SU^↗ET had Vermont's lowest valid local four-year graduation rate in 2025 at 61.3%. Winooski SD^↗ET ranked second-lowest at 66.0% among 44 supervisory unions and districts.

The next-lowest rate was White River Valley SU^↗ET at 69.2%. Two Rivers SU^↗ET, Franklin Northeast SU^↗ET and Burlington SD^↗ET followed at 71.0%, 71.2% and 71.2%.

Similar latest ranks, different recent paths

Orleans Southwest moved from 64.2% in 2023 to 70.0% in 2024, then fell to 61.3% in 2025. Its endpoint change was a 2.9-point decline.

Winooski moved in the other direction. Its rate rose from 56.8% in 2023 to 59.0% in 2024 and 66.0% in 2025, a 9.2-point endpoint gain. White River Valley finished 1.1 points below its 2023 rate after a one-year rise to 87.0% in 2024.

Against Vermont's 82% statewide rate, Orleans Southwest was 20.7 points lower in 2025. Winooski was 16.0 points lower, and White River Valley was 12.8 points lower.

Those gaps describe published outcomes. They do not show why the systems arrived there, and the sharply different paths warn against treating the bottom of the ranking as a single pattern.

System aggregates are not school designations

Vermont's official Annual Snapshot technical manual defines comprehensive-support eligibility at the school level. Supervisory-union and district aggregate ranks are a different reporting grain, so this local ranking cannot establish any system's formal accountability designation.

The package contains four school rows within the three lowest local systems. Orleans Southwest includes Hazen UHS at 60.0% and Craftsbury Schools at 66.7%. Winooski High School matches its district at 66.0%, while White River Valley High School matches its supervisory union at 69.2%.

The Orleans Southwest aggregate cannot be reconstructed from those two school percentages alone because local cohort counts are not available in the package rows. The same missing denominator prevents a comparison of how many individual outcomes produced each rate.

What the aggregate data can and cannot say

The file identifies ranks, paths and gaps from the state rate. It does not measure cohort composition, transfers, course completion, attendance, student services or other possible mechanisms. Those questions require separate evidence.

The bounded conclusion is that Orleans Southwest and Winooski occupied the bottom two positions in the 2025 local aggregate file. One declined from its 2023 level while the other improved, leaving two low latest-year rates with different trajectories.

Data source: Vermont Agency of Education four-year adjusted cohort graduation results for 2023 through 2025. The agency explains access to the official files on its Annual Snapshot data-download page.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.