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 …
The Homa Files 
February 24, 2011 at 2:42 pm |
According to your statistics, Wisconsin teachers are 4% better than the nationwide average. Which is admittedly pretty poor, but I don’t understand why you are attempting to portray them negatively when they in fact appear to be above average. Also, can we stop ignoring the fact that the teachers are protesting largely in response to the attempt to take away their collective bargaining rights? Education reform is a hugely complicated issue and I fail to see how demonizing a whole states-worth of individuals who spend more time with kids than many parents do is going to make the situation better.