I would have thought that Wisconsin’s protesting teachers would have anticipated that the spotlight would eventually be turned onto their performance.
Well, it has … and the picture isn’t much to crow about.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress rates student learning, and says that “Proficient“ represents solid academic performance.
Applying that standard, two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently.
In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009 — the latest year available — only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient.”
The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite a significant increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year… from $4,956 per pupil in 1998 to 10,791 per pupil in 2008.
Nationwide, only 30 percent of public school eighth graders earned a rating of “proficient” or better in reading, and the average reading score on the NAEP test was 262 out of 500.
In other words, despite the $10,791 that taxpayers were paying to educate students in Wisconsin public schools, two-thirds of eighth graders in those schools showed at best only a “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work” at that grade level.
Oops
Tell me again why they should get “free” health insurance and pensions …
