Wisconsin has the widest achievement gap between black and white students of any state, according to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, released on Wednesday.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what U.S. students know and can do in various subjects. NAEP 2019 was administered last spring to over 3,300 Wisconsin public school students in each subject and grade level.
“We have work ahead to achieve our rigorous expectations,” State Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor said in a statement. “Our persistent achievement gaps are a crisis. Closing these gaps is not only the right thing to do, it is imperative for our state.”
In both reading and mathematics, Wisconsin Average Overall Scale Scores for eighth-graders outpaced nearly 40 other states. However, NAEP results for Wisconsin, as well as nationwide, show declining scores among the lowest-performing students. African-American students in Wisconsin in both fourth and eighth grades underperformed students nationally.
