Gregory Thornton helped glean some modest improvements in his four years in Milwaukee, but his power to make sweeping changes was ultimately limited. He was forced to deal with obstacles from the state government, city councils, and his own teachers’ union. Read More Gregory Thornton Leaves MPS after 4 Years of Limited Success
MPS is a failing school district. Only 14.4 percent of students in the city’s public schools rated out as “Proficient” or better when it came to fourth grade reading in the 2012-2013 school year. Just 16.4 percent of MPS’s eighth graders earned the same label in math. According to Department of Public Instruction data, only 61.8 percent of these students graduated in four years. Read More MPS 2.0: Innovations to Save Wisconsin’s Worst School District
MPS is a failing school district. Only 14.4 percent of students in the city’s public schools rated out as “Proficient” or better when it came to fourth grade reading in the 2012-2013 school year. Just 16.4 percent of MPS’s eighth graders earned the same label in math. According to Department of Public Instruction data, only 61.8 percent of these students graduated in four years. Read More MPS 2.0: Innovations to Save Wisconsin’s Worst School District
On Thursday, Chris Rickert – writer for the Wisconsin State Journal – thankfully reminded us about Madison’s dirty little secret. The district has a huge problem when it comes to the achievement gap – how students from different races are learning – and little in terms of a plan to fix it. Read More Madison’s Achievement Gap Grows While the School Board and City Continue to Ignore Charter Success
On Thursday, Chris Rickert – writer for the Wisconsin State Journal – thankfully reminded us about Madison’s dirty little secret. The district has a huge problem when it comes to the achievement gap – how students from different races are learning – and little in terms of a plan to fix it. Read More Madison’s Achievement Gap Grows While the School Board and City Continue to Ignore Charter Success
Education reform isn’t a new or foreign trend in Wisconsin. The state was a school choice pioneer and one of the first to embrace charter schools in the early 1990s. Though major reform efforts have been on the back burner in recent years, topics like value-added analysis and teacher evaluation have kept education on the front page in the Badger State. Now Act 10 has has helped reform education and cut costs across Wisconsin. Read More From EducationNext: Wisconsin Succeeds in Cutting Costs
Education reform isn’t a new or foreign trend in Wisconsin. The state was a school choice pioneer and one of the first to embrace charter schools in the early 1990s. Though major reform efforts have been on the back burner in recent years, topics like value-added analysis and teacher evaluation have kept education on the front page in the Badger State. Now Act 10 has has helped reform education and cut costs across Wisconsin. Read More From EducationNext: Wisconsin Succeeds in Cutting Costs
High school dropouts adversely impact the state of Wisconsin each year–financially and socially. Not only does the state spend hundreds of millions of dollars on high school dropouts, the Wisconsin economy missed out on $3.7 billion in 2011 due to a lower average income for residents without a diploma. Read More The High Costs of High School Dropouts in Wisconsin
High school dropouts adversely impact the state of Wisconsin each year–financially and socially. Dropouts’ lower incomes, high unemployment rates, increased need for medical care, and higher propensity for incarceration create a virtual vortex that consumes Wisconsinites’ tax dollars at a vicious rate. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on these high school dropouts every year. Read More The High Costs of High School Dropouts in Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s four-year graduation rates increased by half a point in 2011-2012, rising to 87.5 percent. Unfortunately, the state’s attainment gap rose as well – from 27.6 to 29.5 points between white and African American students. Every student group’s graduation rates increased or stayed the same except for African American students which dropped 1.1 points to 62.7 percent. Read More Wisconsin’s Graduation Rates Rise, but Attainment Gap Between African American and White Students Widens