MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WTAQ) - Last year’s eighth graders in Wisconsin had lower reading scores than they had the year before as seventh graders. And the drop was not as big in Metro Milwaukee as in the rest of the state.
That’s just one finding in a new report which focused on public schools in 50 southeast Wisconsin districts. Milwaukee’s Public Policy Forum analyzed a variety of school data. And it found that last year’s 8th graders had a 2.2 percent drop statewide in reading proficiency from the previous year’s 7th graders. The drop was a half-percent in the Milwaukee area districts.
Policy Forum president Rob Henken says the decline has been evident the last 5 years – and we’re not seeing the improvement that’s necessary. Also, the study found that girls outperformed boys in reading at every grade level. That’s similar to national trends.
Whites continue to outperform minorities by a large margin in reading and math throughout Wisconsin. Southeast Wisconsin’s graduation rates lag behind the rest of the state. And the effects of the poverty are more evident, as the number of kids eligible for free and reduced-priced lunches jumped 5 to 6 percent statewide.
Anneliese Dickman of the Public Policy Forum says those trends bode poorly for test scores unless someone intervenes.
