Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Evers' DPI Brings Low Achievement--Wants More Money

Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction, managed by the Teachers' Union Boyzzz, simply fails.

Wisconsin is not making as much progress raising student achievement and closing the gaps between have and have-not students as the nation as a whole, according to a report released Tuesday by the Education Trust, an influential, Washington-based nonprofit group

...For example, consider reading scores for fourth-graders in 1998 and in 2007 in the testing program known as the National Assessment of Education Progress. White students nationwide improved their scores seven points over the nine-year period (on a scale where average scores were in the low 200s), while in Wisconsin, the improvement was one point. For black fourth-graders, the nationwide gain was 11 points, while in Wisconsin it was four. And for low-income students in general, the national gain was 10 points, while in Wisconsin it was two points.

DPI says that it is "overhauling" the requirements.

And DPI sees another solution: more money!!

"We know that there are huge gaps in achievement, and we know that these gaps in achievement stem from gaps in opportunities to learn.

"At every single step, our school systems are organized to give those students who come to school with less, less in school, too."

She pointed to a gap of $1,100 per student per year in the amount spent in school districts with the most low-income students and those with the fewest - with the latter districts on the high end of that gap. She called the imbalance "a gaping gap in resources, and one that Wisconsin will need to close if we are going to get equitable achievement and attainment

Really? I'm sure that Ms. Hall can fit her 'Mo'Money' template over the success of Choice schools--which do NOT require 'Mo'Money' to do just as well as (maybe better than) MPS.

Not hard to figure why WEAC is dumping $gazillions into the Evers campaign--Fernandez may actually make changes for the better.

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