(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s learning gap for students is greater than the national average in part because of poverty and not just race, says a report released Tuesday.
“Beyond Race: What Really Drives Wisconsin’s Achievement Gap,” authored by Dr. Will Flanders of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, examined academic achievement gaps between Black and white students.
“Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in the racial achievement gap between white and African American students,” the report says. “According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress in fourth grade reading, Wisconsin’s 45-point gap is the largest in the country – 13 points greater than the next grouping of states such as Louisiana, Michigan, and South Carolina.”
The report again points out that over 78% of Black students in the state fail to meet state standards in reading and writing, compared to just 37% of white students.
“According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2015, children from families below the poverty line scored between 4 and 7 points lower on standardized tests on average,” the report says of an 11-year-old finding.
“As the percentage of African American students in a school goes from 0% to 100%, the proficiency rate on the Forward Exam would be expected to decline by 39.2%,” the report says. “A school with 100% African American students would be expected to have poverty rates 69.1% higher than a school with no African American students, and high poverty is in turn correlated with a 40.8% reduction in proficiency rates. All told, approximately 42.1% of the relationship between African American students and achievement is mediated” by poverty.
The report also looks at the rise in disabled students, and the impact of geography on poor school performance. It also explores family structure as a third cause for the learning gap.
“Research has shown that students who come from two-parent families are more likely to have academic success than those from other family situations. A particular key here is the presence of a father in the home,” the report notes. “As the family situation becomes more unstable, the risk of depression, anxiety, and dropping out of school entirely increases significantly according to research…This is relevant here because Wisconsin has the lowest rate of married African American adults of any state in the country according to the most recent analysis by the Census Bureau.”
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty bills itself as a nonprofit public interest law firm working on matters of “free speech, workers’ freedom, open government, good government, and other individual rights.”
