We Can’t Close the Literacy Gap Until We Close the Honesty Gap
According to a recent Gallup poll, roughly 88% of parents believe their child is performing at or above grade level in reading and math. Yet the reality is quite the opposite: the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 31% of fourth graders are proficient readers.
We have an honesty gap in American education.
The gap is not simply between perception and reality. It is the gap between what students and families are told about progress and what academic outcomes ultimately reveal. Families cannot address challenges they do not fully understand, and schools cannot solve problems they are unwilling to name.
It’s also a gap between what school districts are paying for and what they’re getting in return. Every fall, districts invest millions of dollars in programs designed to improve student achievement. They invest heavily in educational resources which often start with the best intentions: adopting new curricula, purchasing technology, hiring tutoring providers and launching new interventions.
That challenge is particularly important given the scale of educational spending. More broadly, contracted educational services account for approximately 11% of school expenditures, or roughly $100 billion annually. National assessments show that reading and math achievement remain below pre-pandemic levels, with proficiency rates still lagging where they stood just a few years ago.
We can readily track how much money is spent, but we are often far less transparent about whether those investments are improving student learning.
And that’s particularly troubling because there is no more important investment we make as a society than the investment we make in our children. Taxpayers devote hundreds of billions of dollars to public education every year. Every education dollar represents an investment in our future workforce, our communities, and the next generation of leaders. That’s why we are right to expect evidence that those investments are producing meaningful results for students.
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“They were relieved that American classes are so much easier than those in Taiwan”
Notes and links on the taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI and Jill Underly.
“Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?” she asked.
Madison’s district, despite an elite university pipeline, hypereducated leadership, and a shiny, new strategic plan, suffers the same frailties as Milwaukee’s: basement performance, backbreaking spending. But while Milwaukee is pulling out of its tailspin due to courageouschoices from the top, Madison is ponderously ambling to nowhere. Just ask the locals. “You need the marketing, and you need the product,” as a parent told a reporter. “I’m missing the product.”
2025-2026 Madison 4k-3rd grade Early Literacy Screener report: The bar moves faster than the kids.
Joe Gothard, Becky Kundert and Sonia Spencer Remarks on Madison’s K-12 Literacy Crisis.
2026-2027 Madison K-12 $pending continues to grow, fueled by a 9.7% (!) property tax increase. Total spending will be at least $706,000,000 for 25,003 students, or $28,236 per student.
May 2026 Madison School District Presentation: 7,095 adults for 25,003 students (3.52 students per adult!)
2024-2025 Early Literacy Screener Map.
Map: Foundations of Reading Results: 2015–2024
Where have all the students gone?
3,887 Madison 4 year old to third grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group.
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average k-12 tax & $pending. This despite our long term, disastrous reading results. May, 2026: 7,095 Staff for 25,003 students; $pending > $26k per student!
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?
China’s PhD Glut Drives Top Graduates to High School Teaching Jobs
