State Superintendent Announces New Task Force To Address Achievement Gap

State Superintendent Tony Evers has named 17 educators to a newly created task force that will work to find the best teaching strategies to address the state’s achievement gap.

Wisconsin has the highest achievement gap among ethnic and racial groups in the country, according to results from last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test.

Demond Means, superintendent of schools at the Mequon-Thiensville School District, chairs the task force.

“The achievement gap is everyone’s issue across the state,” said Means. “And if we’re going to be a competitive state economically, we have to ensure that every child in the state of Wisconsin regardless of their subgroup identification are achieving at a high level.”

The task force members have been chosen from public, charter, and choice schools from around the state. Evers says its work will be his number one priority this spring. The group’s first meeting will be April 9 in Madison.