Wisconsin reports widest score gap between Black and white students in nation
In the first national assessment of students since the pandemic, Wisconsin again posted the widest score gaps between Black and white students of any state, now by even greater margins.
At the same time, Wisconsin scores statewide climbed in the rankings. Though the state’s 2022 scores declined since the last national assessment in 2019, most states saw steeper drops.
Known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was administered to sample schools in every state between January and March 2022. It tested fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and math.
Wisconsin scores continued to exceed most other states, ranking in the top 10 in math for fourth and eighth grades, and in reading for eighth grade. Fourth-grade reading, as it was in 2019, continued to be the state’s worst area.
Reacting to the scores, the state Department of Public Education celebrated the relative stability of scores among Wisconsin fourth-graders. Their drops were slighter than what the Department of Education deems to be statistically significant, factoring in the sample size of schools. The declines for Wisconsin eighth-graders were considered significant.
Wisconsin racial disparity scores shown in math and reading
In a statement, state Superintendent Jill Underly also acknowledged the persisting opportunity gap between Black and white students.
“We’ve known Wisconsin’s racial disparities in assessment results are among the widest in the nation for too long, and these troubling results are yet one more indication that we must close the opportunity gap in our state,” Underly said.
While about a dozen states didn’t report test scores for Black students because of low numbers, all other states reported score gaps between Black and white students. Wisconsin had the widest gap out of every state in each category, although Washington, D.C., was worse.
Other states came close to Wisconsin’s gaps in some subjects or grade levels but not in others.
In fourth-grade math, white students in Wisconsin scored about 37% higher than Black students. The next biggest difference, 18%, was in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In fourth-grade reading, white students in Wisconsin scored about 22% higher than Black students. The next biggest difference, 19%, was in in California and Maine.
In eighth-grade math, white students in Wisconsin scored about 23% higher than Black students. The next biggest difference, 17%, was in New Jersey.
In eighth-grade reading, white students in Wisconsin scored about 16% higher than Black students. The next biggest difference, 15%, was in Missouri.
Contributing factors to score fluctuations
In Milwaukee Public Schools, while students scored lower than the average scores for the state, nation and among large cities, most of the losses since 2019 were not as severe as most of the country. The worst drop, which did exceed the national average, was in fourth-grade math.
Black fourth-graders in Milwaukee scored the lowest among all school districts that participated.
"The learning loss from the COVID 19 pandemic is real ... sustaining achievement (in) the face of a global crisis like this is not easy. And the fact that we're able to toe the line or at least be consistent with other large schools across the country just shows how proactive Milwaukee Public Schools has been with our efforts," MPS spokeswoman Nicole Armendariz said in an interview.
"We're just committed to continue keeping students on track. And the programs that we implemented are in place, and we're looking at new efforts, new ways, every single day to continue to improve learning and provide more support for children and families," she said about academic programs the district has implemented to give students additional instruction.
Dr. Carrie Streiff-Stuessy is executive director for Common Ground’s Forward Scholars program, a tutoring program for MPS K–3 students who are not yet reading at grade level. The tutoring program grew out of the pandemic as a way to ensure students stay on track.
Before heading the Scholars Forward program, Streiff-Stuessy worked a combined 24 years in education. The Milwaukee resident taught in MPS for 12 years and then 11 years in a neighboring suburb, where she taught during the pandemic. Her daughter is in second grade at MPS.
Streiff-Stuessy said there was a big difference in how MPS and suburban schools reacted to the pandemic.
“In our district, we jumped into creation mode. (In) less than a week, we had virtual learning up and running for our students,” Streiff-Stuessy said. “In the Milwaukee Public Schools, learning for a period of time completely stopped. Kids got nothing. We didn’t even hear from the schools. It was eerie almost the difference between what our students in the city was getting versus students a couple of miles down the street.”
But she said the data showing the disparity in reading and math scores has been a persistent problem. Streiff-Stuessy doesn’t refer to it as an achievement gap but an opportunity gap.
"The discrepancy in students' test scores stems for the lack of opportunities they have," she said. "Whether a student experienced poverty versus someone who is not or whether a family faces a job disruption from the pandemic or being shuffled being shuffled among families because a lack of daycare while parents work.
"The opportunities for students in the suburbs were completely different than the opportunities for students in the city, and more of the students in the city are Black, so that hits them harder; it hits them differently.
“My word is 'action.' I have had enough looking at the data, but we have to do something about that data,” she said. “Wisconsin has had a black-white discrepancy on testing for such a long time; it’s time we do something about it.”
She added that it is difficult to find standardized assessment that aren’t biased. “When we are looking at standardizes test scores, we know that there is testing bias. We know tests were created based on white middle class males decades ago, and we haven’t significantly changed them so that they really gather the knowledge of all our students in a way that is fair.”
Most areas of the country did see steeper drops in math as compared to reading.
More:Reading and math test scores fell across US during the pandemic. How did your state fare?
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education, said math scores more commonly fluctuate with classroom conditions. Parents and other people in children's lives tend to be more comfortable helping students with reading than they are with math.
Officials behind the national assessment said they could not draw conclusions from the results about how virtual learning might have affected districts' scores. But they did find, from survey questionnaires, correlations between scores and access to supportive resources.
On survey questions, students who scored higher reported more access to computers or tablets, high-speed internet, a quiet place to work and someone to help them with schoolwork.
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Evers', Michels' plans to address schools
The nationwide results come about a month after Wisconsin released scores from its own state tests, which showed about a 10% drop form students deemed proficient in 2019.
Underly recently joined Gov. Tony Evers in sharing a $2 billion plan to boost education funding in the 2023-25 budget, with a focus on literacy, mental health and staff shortages in K-12 schools. That plan hinges on the outcome of the November election.
More:Where Tony Evers and Tim Michels stand on abortion, crime, marijuana and education
Tim Michels, challenging Evers for the governor seat, has criticized Evers' plan and has not proposed more funding for public schools, though he has said he would increase funding for vouchers for private schools.
Both Evers and Michels declined to be interviewed about their plans to address the massive and stubborn achievement gap in Wisconsin, but Evers' spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said Evers' budget proposals and recent spending initiatives aim to increase instruction time for students, provide more mental health services and address staffing shortages.
Cudaback also noted Evers has repeatedly proposed budget plans that have been rejected by Republican lawmakers who control the Legislature that would increase funding for programs designed to combat achievement gaps and for schools with high numbers of low-income students, who often perform worse academically than their peers due to the additional hurdles poverty puts in front of children.
Michels told reporters at a press conference in West Bend that the scores show the need for his plan to expand taxpayer-funded private school vouchers to wealthier students in addition to the students eligible now, who are from low- and lower middle-income households.
"Reading is the foundation to being a productive member of society. If you can't read you're probably going to end up out on the streets. So we're going to do massive education reform," he said.
Senate Education Committee chairwoman Alberta Darling, a Republican from River Hills, proposed earlier this year to break up MPS and replace it with smaller school districts, citing MPS' test scores. Evers vetoed the bill and said such an endeavor should be pursued in conjunction with school and community leaders.
“Although our state tests have indicated this, we now know where Milwaukee stands with other major U.S. cities,” Darling said in a statement Monday. "This is heartbreaking, our kids deserve better and instead we have bureaucrats fighting bipartisan reforms while schools continue to try the same failed methods that got us here."
Corrinne Hess of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: NAEP report card shows gap between Wisconsin Black and white students