In recent months, leaders in several cities and states have touted their schools’ sky-high graduation rates. Such figures usually justify celebration—but not when state exams and standardized test scores show weak results. Praising high graduation rates could mislead families about what their kids really know, setting them up for unpleasant surprises later in life.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, for example, recently touted his state’s highest-ever graduation rate: 84.9 percent. The state’s lieutenant governor highlighted the “meaningful and long overdue” progress for Native American students, whose graduation rate has improved by nine percentage points since 2021.
Yet scores for Native Americans declined on state high school exams over the same period. Today, just over a third of Native-American students are reading proficiently, while only 17 percent are proficient in math.
Declining test scores extend to other students as well. On eleventh-grade math, proficiency dropped from 41.4 percent to 35 percent between 2021 and 2025. On tenth-grade reading, about half of students are proficient, down from almost 60 percent in 2021. And nearly two-thirds of students don’t meet grade-level standards in high school science, with 42 percent scoring at the lowest level.
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1998! Money and school performance.
A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.”
3888 (!) Madison 4k to 3rd grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group during the 2024-2025 school year.
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average (now > $26,000 per student) K-12 tax & spending practices. This, despite long term, disastrous reading results.
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?
Legislative Letter to Jill Underly on Wisconsin Literacy.