Welcome to Lake Woebegone
(Where everything ‘meets expectations’)
Every so often, The Werkes attempts to be even-handed. (Why does it hurt when we do that?) But did anyone read Jill Underly’s explanation of why her Department of Public Instruction is dumbing down K-12 student performance standards?
The goal was to make sure we more accurately reflect where students perform academically and to align the standards to what’s tested on our Wisconsin assessment.
We read that twice and we still don’t understand it to mean anything other than “we dumbed down performance standards so that they look better and you can’t compare them with previous years.”
In any event, according to the 2021-22 Forward Exam, 43% of Madison 8th grades scored proficient or better in reading & writing compared to 8th graders in Waunakee who scored 71% — the best in Dane County. Madison scored below the statewide average 48%. Madison’s 8th graders did even worse in mathematics; only 38% were proficient, well below the 51% proficiency statewide.
Despite decades of school boards more woke than Ibram X. Kendi on Folgers instant crystals, only 14% of Madison’s black students were proficient in the “language arts” compared to 74% of white kids. Much worse than the statewide gaps, wherein 17.5% of black students are at least proficient compared to 60.5% of white kids. A meager 10% of Madison’s black students can do the math compared to 72% of white students. Those numbers explain the poor overall scores; the Madison public school district is only 41% white, 23% hispanic, and 18% black. Perhaps more important than race is what DPI calls “economically “disadvantaged:” Milwaukee 82.5%, Madison 46.0%, Waunakee 7.6%
So Madison does a pretty good job of teaching professors’ kids. We took a different take off the Department of Public Instruction’s “dashboard” for the:
Wisconsin Information System for Education
School and District Report Cards for 2022-23
| Overall score | White | Poor | Absent | Language 3rd grade | Math 8th grade | Graduation rates | |
| Madison | 68.3 | 40.3% | 46.0% | 27.1% | 54.6% | 45.6% | 88.8% |
| Milwaukee | 58.0 | 9.3% | 82.5% | 44.2% | 26.8% | 19.0% | 71.1% |
| Waunakee | 79.4 | 84.0% | 7.6% | 9.7% | 73.6% | 74.8% | 98.5% |
| STATE | NA | NA | NA | 18.0% | 56.8% | 57.2% | 91.8% |
Poverty is the indicator more than race, doncha think? We’re comparing Madison against Waunakee, the highest-performing school district in Dane County, and dysfunctional Milwaukee. Former Madison superintendent Jennifer Cheatham attempted to attack the achievement gap through the disciplinary code. She thought that too many black students were being disciplined compared to white. The result was her much despised behavior plan, which resulted in less discipline for black, white, and brown — but the same racial gaps.
Jiggering the numbers
The WI Institute for Law & Liberty found that DPI gives student proficiency less weight in districts with more low-income students but weighs “student growth” more highly in high poverty districts.
That when Wisconsin’s new school report cards are released, we learn that Wisconsin’s schools must all be located in Lake Woebegone, where everyone is above average. … In a district like Milwaukee with more than 82% low-income students, proficiency barely matters for their overall score at all. … it makes comparability of report card performance across school districts nearly impossible. … Milwaukee even managed to reach the middle category of “Meets Expectations.”
We could not find that DPI lists disciplinary statistics so we chose the next best indicator: chronic absenteeism. DPI scores absenteeism inversely: higher scores indicate less absenteeism. Madison scored 72.9 in chronic absenteeism — about midway between Waunakee’s excellent 90.3 and Milwaukee’s dismal 55.8. (These are not percentages but “scores.” We subtracted those numbers from 100 to compile the numbers in the chart above.)
Blaska’s Bottom Line: We said we would try to be even-handed. Every 50-state K-12 comparison we could find puts Wisconsin’s schools in the top 10; some in the top 5. (Such as here, here, and here.) That Wisconsin’s capital city, the seat of higher education, does so much worse than state average, however, is scandalous.
What Woke educrats like Jennifer Cheatham (currently replicating more Jennifers at Harvard University) do not understand is that learning IS discipline. There’s a reason why the language arts, mathematics, the sciences are called “disciplines.” All sports, whether volleyball or football, have rules and penalties for their violation. Successful teams play by the rules — in sports and in life.
Madison’s public schools won’t learn until they get a slap of reality by turning down their $607 million in spending referenda and a new school board is elected next April.
13 responses to “See me after school”
I don’t think professors are sending their kids to Madison schools. In the last 50 years after numerous studies I would bet the black graduation rate hasn’t changed or gone down. I saw the MMSD budget was published in today’s paper. Good luck trying to figure out where all the money is going on how they group things.
1) SROs back in
2) BEP back out
“Is the problem money or direction?”
It’s a NO SHOW PARENTING problem.
The kicker? If you suggest this, you are, de facto, a RAYcist.
The Gotch
Please enlighten us with a list of your parenting skills.
After nearly 35 years of being a Cop in Madison, I can tell you that what “The Gotch” said is correct. Children raising children doesn’t fare well in life and failure is evident. Instead of pandering to the kiddies and their progressive parents et.al., the district needs to get real and start managing their schools. I’ll be damned I’ll give them over a 1/2 billion to squander away if the current school culture remains as today.
hammerofcheddar; a genuine thank you for your service…and H/T on a GREAT commenting handle!
The Gotch
I think you know that I agree with much of what you complain about the disastrously counterproductive administration of Jennifer Cheatham who saw systemic racism everywhere as the cause of dispiriting test scores among too many black students.
But when you say that the source of the problem, instead, is “learning is discipline,” inferring that this is the reason for those poor black scores, and teachers should therefore expect and insist that disadvantaged students come to school disciplined.
It is one thing to look at a school and note a prevalent lack of discipline, which is adversely impacting learning, and quite another to expect those seriously troubled kids to be disciplined or …. what. Suspend all of them?
The reality we face, however, is that the crippling effects of discrimination, especially in the past, but some continuing today, has crippled the solid family structures in which discipline naturally grows.
I fear your approach would relegate all those innocent children, who were born into those unfortunate conditions through no fault of their own, to live a failed life.
There are strategies that can sometimes reach and rehabilitate children, who otherwise will be branded as juvenile delinquents, with emotional support and inculcating techniques to manage anger and build relationships. I volunteer at One City Schools where they focus substantial resources and energy into making that dream into a reality.
Know that this eschews all of Dr. Cheatham’s nonsense, along with Ibram Kendi’s. It offers love, but with expectations, and if a child is unable to respond constructively, then there are consequences so discipline, which is necessary for there to be learning, can be maintained.
I ask that you give these thoughts your sincere consideration, Dave. That would be a good thing for bringing together those with different political opinions for a better world.
Well said Peter. Well said.
Ever wonder why the military emphasizes marching in order during basic training? At Sacred Hearts school in Sun Prairie, we marched two by two into church for morning mass. The nun clicked her froggie clicker, whereupon we genuflected before entering the church pews. In one word: discipline. A disciplined person does what s/he must. As for failed lives, Peter, what do you think MMSD is pumping into the streets of Madison right now?
“The reality we face, however, is that the crippling effects of discrimination, especially in the past, but some continuing today, has crippled the solid family structures in which discipline naturally grows.”
Nonsense. Nonmarital birth rates among blacks were around 20% from the 40s to the early 60s. They are around 70% today. Would you seriously argue that there is more racial discrimination today than there was 80 years ago?
“Nonmarital birth rates among blacks were around 20% from the 40s to the early 60s. They are around 70% today.”
BOOM Goes The Dynamite!.
So, what changed In The 60’s…?
The Gotch
The inimitable Dr. Thomas Sowell (who is reportedly black): How The Welfare State DESTROYED BLACK FAMILIES
MONEY QUOTE: “If a boy doesn’t have a father in the home he’ll find one on the streets.”- Denzel Washington
The Gotch
The problem is the digital age has led to the dumbing down of America and a shortage of qualified teachers. The Great Lockdown of 2020 didn’t help: Some sheeples are reluctant to leave their virtual cocoons.
Fortunately I grew up during the 1950s/early 60s, in Madison, a time when teachers did their jobs. We actually had to memorise the multiplication table IN OUR HEADS. I am grateful to have had teachers who taught us to read. It was See Spot Run time.
Dear Squire,
Your 3rd and 2nd to last paragraphs are stupendous. MMSD in nutshell.