Voucher Students Perform Slightly Worse Than Public School Students On Standardized Tests

Taxpayer-funded voucher students performed slightly lower in reading and math than their counterparts in public school, according to 2013 state standarized test scores results released on Tuesday by the Department of Public Instruction.

Jim Bender, president of School Choice Wisconsin, says while test scores were slightly better than the previous year, neither private nor public schools fared well overall.

“The number across the board for the most part show less than half of the students in the state are proficient, and that just can’t be acceptable,” said Bender. “I think everybody will admit we are not where we need to be. We’ve got to kind of actually have a blunt and harsh conversation about the kind of change it’s going to take to get us where we need to go.”

Below are some detailed numbers from the test results.

In reading:

• 37 percent of public school students statewide were proficient or advanced statewide.
• In Milwaukee:
  • 15 percent of public school students were proficient or advanced
  • 12 percent of voucher students were proficient or advanced.
• In Racine:
  • 23 percent of public school students were proficient or advanced.
  • 19 percent of voucher students were proficient or advanced.

In math:

• 49 percent of public school students statewide were proficient or advanced.
• In Milwaukee:
  • 19 percent of public school students were proficient or advanced.
  • 16 percent of voucher students were proficient or advanced.
• In Racine:
  • 28 percent of public school students were proficient or advanced.
  • 21 percent of voucher students were proficient or advanced.

Those results are up only slightly from 2012.