(The Center Square) — Most schools in Wisconsin received passing grades in the state’s latest round of report cards, a process that generated more criticism as the grades were released.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday said report cards for every school in the state showed that more than 90 percent passed.
“Of the 378 public school districts receiving report cards, 355 (94%) met, exceeded, or significantly exceeded expectations,” the department said. “Among the 436 private schools participating in a Private School Choice Program, 161 (85% of scored Choice report cards) met, exceeded or significantly exceeded expectations.”
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty Research Director Will Flanders, an advocate of voucher schools, said that comparison doesn’t tell the whole story.
“Private choice and charter schools remain bright spots,” Flanders wrote on X. “Choice schools in (Milwaukee) saw proficiency rates 10-11% higher than public schools when key control variables are considered. Charters saw higher performance in (Milwaukee) in both reading & math and higher in reading outstate.”
Flanders said the report makes it look like a lot of public schools are doing better than they really are.
“DPI continues to try to hide the ball on student outcomes, but they have failed to do so here. Despite absurd ratings like schools with less than 15% proficiency ‘exceeding expectations,’ very real achievement and achievement gap problems persist,” Flanders added.
The new numbers are the first since the department changed its benchmarks for local schools in recent years.
The Department of Public Instruction has said the new grading system was determined by a 26-member advisory committee that works with the contracted Center for Assessment, leaving DPI out of the decision-making process.
The latest report card information can be found here. It includes a search tool for school districts and individual schools.
