428 results
Transcript [Machine Generated PDF]: Deborah Kerr: [00:43:53] Um, whose turn is it to go first? Okay. That’s fine. Yeah, we’re pretty good at figuring this out. Um, [00:44:00] so that’s one thing we can do. Um, yes, I support the FORT. I fo I support the Praxis test. So you gotta think about something. Why […]
Alan J. Borsuk There have been times when I was optimistic that – at last! – Milwaukee leaders were coming together to take on the city’s reading crisis in a meaningful and energized way. Last September was one of those times, when key figures across Milwaukee’s often-fractious education scene appeared together at a meeting of […]
IRG link: 25% of Wisconsin college students fail the FORT Foundations of Reading Test. While the Universities of Wisconsin has said they are complying with reforms required in 2023 Act 20 that could help more students pass, DPI has not detailed that compliance. Meanwhile, only 10% of students fail in literacy leader Massachusetts, which has […]
Ah politics. Funny how things “work”. Ben Jones: Prior to being appointed to the bench, Judge Jones built an impressive record as an attorney in private practice, and then was legal counsel under three successive Superintendents at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the state’s education agency. Ben distinguished himself at DPI as the […]
Senator Eric Limburger and Legislator Robert Wittke: February 10, 2026 Dr. Jill Underly, State Superintendent Department of Public Instruction 201 West Washington Avenue Madison, Wisconsin 53703 Dear Dr. Underly: 2023 Wisconsin Act 20 created several requirements for the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) related to literacy. In DPI’s report on the 2024-25 universal reading assessment […]
Danielle DuClos: After Evers dropped the 2017 rule changes while serving as state superintendent, neither his successor, Carolyn Stanford Taylor, nor the current state superintendent, Jill Underly, promulgated similar measures. Underly says the Department of Public Instruction is now working on two related rules, though. Facing pressure from critics after the Cap Times investigation, Underly […]
David Blaska: All committed under the un-watchful eye of Superintendent Underly, a MAGA-hating progressive bought by the Democrat(ic) party (to the tune of $1,141,632 — 80% of her total campaign funding), supported by the teachers union, and endorsed by The Capital Times itself. As the news outlet reported: The WI Department of Public Instruction investigated more than […]
Keegan Kyle: Underly stood by the department’s practice of allowing educators under investigation for misconduct to voluntarily surrender their licenses to avoid further investigation. She said voluntary license surrenders often spare victims from “retraumatization through lengthy investigations.” She also called these license surrenders a “binding, legal agreement to a permanent, lifetime ban on their ability […]
Chris Rickert: In their July working paper, researchers from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research pointed to four main reasons district administrators have forgone performance pay: “Almost all the districts that experimented with using teacher performance as more than a minimal requirement for pay progression or bonuses have abandoned this approach,” the paper reports. The 2011 […]
Limited background amidst Wisconsin (and Madison’s) long term, disastrous reading results: Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test Scores for Reelection? notes and links on Incumbent DPI Superintendent Jill Underly (back story). Underly supports eliminating our one elementary teacher content knowledge requirement, the Foundations of Reading (FORT). Perhaps this forensic thread offers a […]
Karen Vaites: Last year, I wrote about a specific, promising development in Wisconsin: the state published the strongest ELA curriculum list in the country. Unfortunately, the work in Wisconsin prior to that development, and since, underwhelms. I’m overdue to write about the broader context in Wisconsin, mostly because progress on curriculum improvement has stalled, and I should […]
Capital Times Editorial:a In contrast, Underly is backed by the state’s most ardent advocates for public-school students and teachers. Many of her backers are Democratic legislators, and she’s supported by the party. But, more importantly, she’s supported by educators who work in the state’s urban and rural schools, technical colleges and universities. American Federation of […]
John Nichols summary The contest pits two people with very different views against one another. Underly — who taught in rural schools before becoming an elementary school principal, school district superintendent, university academic advisor and administrator, and assistant director at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction — was elected to serve as superintendent in 2021. […]
Corrinne Hess: She wants to make it easier for failing schools to somehow seem like they’re succeeding,” Vos said during a press conference. “I hope that’s one of the areas that we’ll get some speedy discussion on, hopefully bipartisan support. Because I would hope that no one, the most liberal person or the most conservative […]
Emilee Fannon: Are standards lower? DPI officials have defended the new benchmarks, saying they align more directly with the state’s Forward Exam and teaching standards. Underly noted other states, such as Oklahoma and New York, have recently lowered their testing benchmarks. However, the Institute for Reforming Government, a conservative think tank, points to changes for […]
Will Flanders: An example of the problem with DPI changing standards from Reddit. This poster earnestly believes proficiency is up 12% this year. The average person doesn’t have time to delve into the nuance of state tests. DPI is willfully pulling the wool over our eyes to hide their failings. Curiously, after reducing rigor statewide, […]
Dave Cieslewicz And the racial achievement gap in Madison was far worse than the rest of the state. Statewide the gaps were 43% for English and 50% for math. About 60% of white students were proficient in English compared to 17% of Black students. About 64% of white students were proficient or better in math […]
Kayla Huynh Among the changes are lower scoring standards for each performance level and different labels categorizing students. In an interview with CBS 58, state Superintendent Jill Underly said students “appeared to be doing worse than they really were” under the previous system. Madison Metropolitan School District leaders this month offered the School Board a sneak […]
WisPolitics: Underly road a historic wave of cashflow to win in 2021, marking a significant win for Dems of the GOP. While the race was officially nonpartisan, the Dem Party contributed $949,844 to Underly’s campaign, which spent $1.53 million over the election. In all, candidates and outside groups spent $3 million on the race, a […]
Scott Girard: It’s been a challenging few years for K-12 education, both locally and nationally. Wisconsin State Superintendent Jill Underly is nonetheless “optimistic” about what’s ahead for the field. “I think people are coming together, realizing that if we want to improve the lives of all Wisconsinites and especially the kids who are going to […]
Alan Borsuk: t’s an emergency. It says so right there on the legal papers: “Order of the State Superintendent for Public Instruction Adopting Emergency Rules.” But it’s a curious kind of emergency. Elsewhere in the paperwork, it uses the term “difficulties.” Maybe that’s a better way to put it. Underlying the legal language lie questions […]
I am moved to respond to Sol Garfunkel’s “Opinion” article.1 I am a long-time high school mathematics teacher in a public school. I started teaching around the time of SMSG and have been in the trenches throughout several of the math wars. I know Dr. Garfunkel’s fine work in creating interesting modeling projects and his outspoken opinion that using technology to solve problems that apply the mathematics we are teaching will better concretize students’ understanding of the underlying mathematics. It sounds like a fine idea, but the reality is often very different.
Our problems in teaching mathematics begin in elementary school. Sadly, many teachers working with our children at the start of their mathematical journeys are not themselves comfortable with the mathematics they are trying to teach. They often only know one way to teach an idea and they may not fully understand how that method works and why it gives the right answers. Such a teacher confronted with an alternate creative method (perhaps suggested by a clever child or a seasoned colleague) may reject the alternative rather than trying to see how and why two methods produce the same result. Beyond stifling the creativity of students and discouraging them from trying to see how the mathematics works, such an approach is not fertile ground for applications and modeling projects in which creative exploration and possibly unorthodox methods are encouraged as a means of truly understanding what is happening. Teachers who lack confidence in their own understanding of the ideas may not want to include these sorts of activities in their classrooms.
Related: Math Forum audio & video.
Quinton Klabon: Superintendent Underly is fundraising for @WiscEdNetwork in gorgeous Superior. @uwgb and @UWMadison @ELPAUW are listed as sponsors, as is CESA 10. @WisconsinDPI is depicted on the sponsorship slide but was not thanked by name nor listed as a sponsor on the website. ——- Notes and links on Jill Underly. 2026-2027 Madison K-12 $pending […]
Carlo Rovelli A fierce debate is raging around the slippery notion of consciousness. It retraces a trotted pattern of cultural resistance: We humans are often scared by anything that may disturb our image of ourselves. Famously, Darwin’s realization that we have common ancestors with all living organisms on our planet met ferocious resistance. Many felt […]
Hamed Aleaziz, Ernesto Londoño and Amy Qin: A three-person Minnesota panel including Gov. Tim Walz granted a pardon to an immigrant convicted of sexually abusing a child, drawing accusations that he and other Democrats are impeding federal efforts to expel dangerous foreign criminals eligible for deportation. The Minnesota Board of Pardons granted the reprieve on […]
Brian Fraley: When State Superintendent Jill Underly launched Wisconsin’s “Portrait of a Graduate” initiative in late May, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) flooded the media with a carefully crafted narrative. Local press outlets quickly repeated the agency’s claims that this massive effort to redefine success in Wisconsin public education was being guided by a […]
Ariel Kalil, Derek Rury Many, if not most, of them are wrong. Actual proficiency rates among eighth graders are 30 percent in reading and 28 percent in math, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or N.A.E.P. The gap between grades and test scores is particularly pronounced in schools serving higher proportions of low-income […]
Erin Gretzinger But between the years where scores jumped, the state Department of Public Instruction adjusted testing benchmarks and lowered the threshold to score proficient. The number of students reading and writing proficiently statewide went from 39% to 51%. The department cautions the public against comparing test scores before and after the change because the results “cannot be […]
Patrick Mcilheran: That Jill Underly was elected—and in an election structured to guarantee union control of the outcome—poses a big problem for oversight by the people’s legitimate representatives. Where was DPI Supt when she skipped a public hearing on April 15 on her department’s standards-setting conference in the Dells? This is the level of transparency […]
www The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction today announced new partnerships with public and private schools to expand early literacy support through the hiring of literacy coaches. As part of ongoing efforts under 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, the DPI will place literacy coaches into 50 public schools and four private schools over the next two years. […]
David Blaska: We wanted Ray Mendez to run for school board this year but he has more sense than that. No entity in local government more needs a disrupter than the Metropolitan Madison Board of Education. We introduced the gentleman to Werkes readers in November 2025. Mr. Mendez picks up on a platform this on-line scribbler […]
Neetu Arnold 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 […]
Molly Beck: Guv race news: WEAC, the state’s largest teachers union, endorses Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys for governor. —— A bit of history: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators ——— Fast Lane Literacy 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 […]
WILL: The Wisconsin Constitution grants the Legislature the authority to determine education policy and to effectuate school funding and charges the Superintendent of Public Instruction with the task of supervising public instruction, not the judicial branch. Moreover, the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s Choice Programs 30 years ago. The Quote: WILL Deputy Counsel, […]
Karen Vaites: A recent study “compared trends before and after dyslexia laws were enacted across 47 states, ” and the findings were grim: “First, more than half of the states with these new laws showed no significant shift in identifying learning disabilities related to reading. Some states identified more students, some fewer, but there was no consistent […]
Teagan King: The programs are shuttering at the end of this school year, the district confirmed Monday, after President Donald Trump’s administration cut funding for AmeriCorps initiatives like United Way’s Schools of Hope last year. “We are deeply grateful to United Way of Dane County, as well as the many volunteers who have supported our […]
Rachel Canter: No story has caught the imagination of education reformers this decade quite like the “Mississippi miracle.” From 1998 to 2024, fourth-grade reading and math scores in my home state—the nation’s poorest—rose from among the worst in the country to among the best. When adjusting for demographic factors such as poverty, we’re in first place. Other states […]
Danielle DuClos: Jones was appointed to the Branch 1 seat by Gov. Tony Evers last year after Susan Crawford was elected to the state Supreme Court. Prior to his appointment by Evers, he spent almost a decade as an attorney with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction under three state superintendents, including Evers. For about […]
Erin Gretzinger: Blair Mosner Feltham and Nicki Vander Meulen will retain their seats on the Madison School Board, defeating challengers Daniella Molle and Dana Colussi-Lynde in two contested races Tuesday. In the Seat 6 election, Mosner Feltham, a teacher in the Sun Prairie Area School District, received 61.8% of the vote with 100% of precincts […]
By Paul Ciotti: For decades critics of the public schools have been saying, “You can’t solve educational problems by throwing money at them.” The education establishment and its supporters have replied, “No one’s ever tried.” In Kansas City they did try. To improve the education of black students and encourage desegregation, a federal judge invited […]
Will Flanders: For years, Wisconsin has held a troubling distinction in American education: the largest racial achievement gap in the nation. On the 2024 fourth-grade reading assessment from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gap between white and African American students in Wisconsin was 45 points. The scale of the disparity has fueled intense debate. Some […]
Kyle Koenen: Reality: ~$17,900 (Madison > $26,000) If people don’t know how much we’re spending, it becomes difficult to determine the “right” amount of spending on schools. 🧵/2 WILL: Parents Are Unaware of Current School Spending: 44% of parents surveyed say they are “not sure” how much is spent on each student. Another 43% provide estimates […]
Will Flanders: A new lawsuit has challenged the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s public school finance system, with plaintiffs arguing that inadequate state funding denies students a “sound basic education.” The case threatens the entire current state education funding system, with implications extending beyond traditional public school funding to include school choice programs. While the complaint alleges […]
Tristar Daily: Key Findings from the Interim Report – Deficiencies and Observations: Nearly 175 deficiencies were identified across various sections of the report, indicating systemic issues. – Financial Mismanagement: – Disbursements: $1,145,909.97 flagged as waste or abuse, with about $1,112,750 linked to contract-related spending. – Issues included inadequate oversight, unsupported or duplicative […]
Dave Cieslewicz: For example, in 2024, Madison voters approved a record $507 million capital improvements referendum. One of the largest items in that referendum was $85 million for a new, bigger building to house Sherman Middle and Shabazz High schools. Yet, that building is at only 50% of capacity, and projections are for enrollments to go down. Before […]
The Economist: Until recently, most leading AI research was produced by experts based in the West. That is changing. In 2025, for the first time, more studies presented at the world’s top AIconference had lead authors based in China than in either America or Europe. To better understand the international ebbs and flows of AI talent, The Economist tracked the education histories […]
Chris Rickert: Madison School District teacher exchanged nearly 130,000 messages with a female student and repeatedly told her he loved her and pressured her for increasing amounts of physical contact, a criminal complaint alleges. Eliav M. Goldman, 29, was charged Tuesday with felony grooming and sexual misconduct for his behavior with the student, which began […]
Erin Gretzinger: Under state open records laws, the Cap Times obtained the open-ended survey responses, which reveal the extent of tension in the community over what should be the school district’s priorities as it redraws school boundaries. While dozens stressed the importance of diverse schools and equitably distributing resources, many also urged the school district […]
Washington Post: Higher graduation rates are something to celebrate, so long as they’re actually backed by an increase in academic achievement, but Boston’s standardized test scores tell a different story. Mayor Michelle Wu (D) says her city’s graduation rate at public high schools — 81.3 percent last year, the highest in district history — came […]
Will Flanders: That Wisconsin schools are somehow “underfunded” is pure misinformation. Below is inflation adjusted spending since 2000. We spend MORE than we did in 2000. We spend within $200 of the all time highs right before Act 10. The media needs to start questioning this narrative. ——- more. ——- Fast Lane Literacy 1998! Money and […]
Shannon Whitworth: For example, the Obama administration implemented a race-based disciplinary approach for secondary schools. In practice, this policy led many schools to limit discipline to avoid racial disparities in disciplinary outcomes, reducing accountability for students’ unacceptable behavior in school. In turn, that policy encouraged disruptive behavior in classrooms. It also created an environment not conducive […]
Joe Gothard: I want to sincerely thank the community members who havewrittenletters to the editor about my recent comments in a March 2 Wisconsin State Journal article. In it, I used “tax rate” when I meant “tax amount.” I realize my wording missed the mark, and I regret any misunderstanding this caused. My consistent message has been that […]
Teagan King: This year, 25,029 students are enrolled in Madison schools, a 0.5% decrease from last year, when 25,155 attended. Enrollment also has fallen statewide over the past five years, according to data from the Department of Public Instruction released earlier this month. Larger 12th-grade classes than incoming freshman classes are partially to blame for […]
WILL: .@WILawLiberty is excited to announce Dr. Cade Brumley as our Keynote Speaker at the 2026 School Board Summit! 📚 Focus: Transforming Education: Lessons from Louisiana’s Reform Efforts📍 Renaissance Milwaukee West Hotel📅 Friday, April 24, 2026 REGISTER NOW: zeffy.com/en-US/ticketin… ——- Legislative Letter to Jill Underly on Wisconsin Literacy. Notes and links on current Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Jill Underly.
Paul Runko: So it’s time for K-12 public education to have a “Moneyball” moment. Here’s the “stats” that should matter when schools construct their teacher rosters: 1. Classroom Management Students can’t learn if they are constantly distracted by their peers or chaos in the classroom. Principals, administrators, and school board members can easily observe a […]
Will Flanders Public scjools apparently have realized the(y) can no longer lie about their failures, and have now decided to blame taxpayers. $18,592 per kid is more than enough. Private and charter schools get better results for $1000s less per student. ——- Fast Lane Literacy 1998! Money and school performance. A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.” 8,897 (!) Madison 4k […]
John Stossel: “My child can’t read!” That’s become a common complaint from parents. Why? It might be because kids are distracted by social media and video games. But I think it’s also because reading instruction became lazy and political. “Progressives” at teachers’ colleges pushed a reading technique called “Balanced Literacy.” Instead of memorizing sounds and […]
Chad Aldeman: Besides, thanks largely to the state’s investments in free community college for everyone and tuition- and fee-free public four-year college for students from low-income families, the number of students attending public colleges and universities has jumped by about 24,000 since 2022. That’s a gain of 16 percent in three years, reversing years of declines and […]
Wall Street Journal Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is supposed to be the great moderate hope for Democrats in 2028, but on Friday he revealed himself as a captive of the left’s most destructive interest group. He vetoed a bill to opt his state into the federal tax-credit scholarship program, taking dictation from the teachers union. “The answer […]
Steven Walters: “Between the 1999-2000 and 2022-2023 school years, statewide fourth grade reading proficiency dropped from 78% to 44.8% (a 43% decline…) and statewide eighth grade math proficiency dropped from 42% to 30.5% (a 27% decline..).” If the governor and Legislature don’t respond to a ruling that the current system is unconstitutional, the suit asks […]
Erin Gretzinger: As Mosner Feltham and Vander Meulen underscored their track records and ongoing endeavors to improve the Madison Metropolitan School District, Molle and Colussi-Lynde spotlighted their ideas and what differentiates them from their opponents. The candidates share many overarching priorities, such as advocating for changes to the state funding formula for public schools and addressing salary compression for […]
Dave Cieslewicz: Now, to be sure, I will happily vote for both of them because any change to this dismal board has to be a step in the right direction. Incumbents Blair Mosner Feltham and Nicki Vander Meulen have been part of a board that is leading the district to new depths each year. Year […]
Bipartisan Policy Center Calls for federal alignment, clear career pathways, removal of barriers to keep U.S. competitive WASHINGTON, DC—The Bipartisan Policy Center today released a comprehensive blueprint for tackling one of America’s most important domestic challenges: preparing America’s workforce for the jobs of today—and into the future. In a newly released report, “A Nation at […]
Frederick Hess After all, it was 26 years ago this spring that the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development issued its National Reading Panel report, which made the case for the science of reading and emphasized the need for explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and systematic phonics instruction. Those recommendations were the foundation of the […]
WILL: Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in the racial achievement gap between white and African American students. According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in fourth grade reading, Wisconsin’s 45-point gap is the largest in the country—13 points greater than the next grouping of states such as Louisiana, Michigan, and South […]
Dave Cieslewicz: Maia Pearson, the chair of Madison’s police oversight board and a Madison school board member, has been charged with criminal misdemeanors related to her resisting arrest in an incident in downtown Madison in December. In a criminal complaint, it is alleged that she and her friend, Urban Triage executive director Brandi Grayson, verbally […]
Chris Rickert: Pearson and Grayson were arrested after Grayson refused to move her vehicle — in which Pearson was a passenger — out of a theater’s no-parking area and argued with theater employees, according to police and the Dane County District Attorney’s Office. A source with knowledge of the event has said that the theater […]
Matthew Yglesias The growing progressive interest in exotic new tax-policy ideas — like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna saying they can raise trillions in revenue from a base of around 1,000 billionaires — shows a left that has lost faith in the idea of asking Americans to pay higher taxes in exchange for more and better public services. And […]
Will Flanders: We also look at Wisconsin’s largest school choice program–open enrollment. Here, you see the marketplace working as families move to school districts with better academic outcomes and graduation rates. The Report: WILL’s Apples to Apples report provides a rigorous, side-by-side comparison of academic performance across Wisconsin’s public, charter, and private choice schools. Because […]
Preeya P. Mbekeani, John P. Papay, Ann Mantil & Richard J. Murnane: Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, […]
Jason Riley: Far too many children are still assigned to substandard schools, and too many remain unable to read or do math at grade level. Meanwhile, educators and policymakers seem preoccupied with nonsense like helping students “transition” behind their parents’ backs or indoctrinating impressionable youngsters with social-justice poppycock to promote trendy political causes. American kids […]
Dan Lennington: Note that the plan tells teachers to actively deceive parents by referring to students one way in school & another way in front of family. WILL: “The Supreme Court reinforced that parents have enforceable rights to be involved in major decisions affecting their children’s health and wellbeing. Because of this clarification, WILL is […]
Preeya P. Mbekeani, John P. Papay, Ann Mantil & Richard J. Murnane: Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, […]
Brian Fraley: The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is returning to the Wisconsin Dells for its 11th annual WISEdata Conference on March 18 and 19. This gathering of school administrators and data coordinators comes as the agency tells state lawmakers in Madison that it is facing a dire fiscal crisis that could lead to staff layoffs. The […]
Teagan King The 2024 referendum passed by a wide margin, but some people are feeling surprised by what they’re having to contribute to it. Do you have any response to some taxpayers’ concerns? We don’t assess properties, so we’re not increasing the property value, and if property value goes up, of course the tax rate […]
Cap Times: Two Madison School Board seats will be decided by voters on April 7, and the Cap Times will bring together the candidates for each seat in a public forum on Wednesday, March 11, at La Follette High School. The moderators will be Cap Times education reporter Erin Gretzinger and Taylor Kilgore of the […]
Erin Gretzinger: As authorities investigate allegations that an East High School staff member fed dog food to a student, state Rep. Shelia Stubbs and other community leaders called on the Madison school district to expedite its review and release more information. At the state Capitol Friday alongside Stubbs and others, Debra Hawkes said the staff […]
Boston Globe: A 2023 study of 19 teacher preparation programs in Massachusetts underscored the need for this requirement. That study, conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality, gave grades of D or F to 15 of those 19 programs for their literacy training, while only 3 received an A or better. Several of the state’s largest teacher preparation […]
Chris Mueller Wisconsin homeowners face one of the heaviest property tax burdens in the country, according to a new report from WalletHub. The personal finance website compared property tax rates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia by using U.S. Census Bureau data, which it said shows the average U.S. household pays $3,119 a year […]
Dave Cieslewicz: And here’s what Pearson is alleged to have done according to a criminal complaint as part of formal charges brought against her last week. She and a friend, Brandi Grayson, were out together just before Christmas. At about 11 PM they parked in a loading zone behind a theatre. When a security guard asked them […]
Corrinne Hess: “This is a constitutional challenge to the deficiency of the state public finance system for our schools,” said Jeff Mandell, president of Law Forward, the firm representing the plaintiffs. “Despite heroic efforts that have held our schools together for as long as they’ve made it under this deficient funding, it’s not enough. These […]
Zach Groshell: What Has Changed AI is dramatically better than it was a year ago. New models have emerged that are not just incrementally improved but fundamentally more capable. That part is clear. What hasn’t changed requires a longer conversation. What Has Not Changed Direct Instruction in the Engelmann tradition remains the most effective method […]
By Sasha Rogelberg He said Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the previous one. While skills measured by these tests, like literacy and numeracy, aren’t always indicative of intelligence, they are a reflection of cognitive capability, which Horvath said has been on the decline over the […]
Anna Hansen: The three top spellers advanced to the Badger State Spelling Bee on March 21, so Barnhill will be joined by Joanne Aldoori of Madinah Academy, who placed second, and third-place finisher Ignatius Fassino of St. Ambrose Academy. Casey Barnhill found his spelling bee victory cradled between Colombia, Peru and the Pacific Ocean. The […]
Erin Gretzinger The Dane County district attorney filed misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting an officer against Madison School Board Vice President Maia Pearson Thursday. The charges stem from a December incident involving Pearson and Brandi Grayson, the CEO of Urban Triage, that led to their arrests. Both Pearson and Grayson have entered not guilty pleas and […]
Chris Rickert: Jensen then told police that the person who made the original report in October has a stepsister who goes to Thoreau, that the stepsister had seen the photo and told her mother about it, and that the mother had reported the photo’s existence to the school. Madison police and the Madison School District […]
The Economist: It helps that red states have gone back to basics: legislators in state capitals have enacted new rules that require teaching reading via phonics and holding failing schools accountable. Those decisions matter a great deal for classrooms. But America is made up of more than 13,000 school districts, most of which have the […]
Garry Tan: I sometimes wonder about the fervor education bureaucrats have for making standardized testing optional. Then I hear stories like Aleysha’s and know exactly why they do it. Tests reveal the rot. San Francisco paid 6-figures to education school bureaurcrats pushing “Grading for Equity” — homework doesn’t count, unlimited test retakes, lateness and absence don’t affect […]
Jorge Elorza: America is in a decade-long education depression. Barely a third of students are proficient in reading or math across most grades in recent testing, achievement gaps are widening fast, and too many college freshmen are arriving on campus unable to read a full book or do middle-school-level math. Chronic absenteeism has surged after the pandemic; students are disengaged. Educators […]
Brian Fraley: DPI has a transparency problem that is quickly becoming a legal one. After a year of stonewalling our investigation into what we discovered was a taxpayer-funded Waterpark Workshop, the department has yet to release the vendor contract. Conveniently for them, it is the very document they claim restricts their ability to provide more details […]
San Francisco Chronicle: But San Francisco’s strike did not occur in a vacuum. The California Teachers Association, the powerful statewide union representing teachers, has made no secret of the fact that it is coordinating a statewide campaign — dubbed “We Can’t Wait” — to align teacher strikes in more than two dozen districts, from San Francisco to Los […]
Quinton Klabon: 🚨ACT 20 READING UPDATE🚨 A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.” 8,897 (!) 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 […]
Brian Fraley: The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has many problems. They’re self righteous, secretive and indignant. Their communications efforts do not offer clarity, they obfuscate. This was on full display in their spokesperson’s response to Dairyland Sentinel’s reporting. The statement was emailed out to many media outlets. Here’s a link to the full statement as […]
Danielle DuClos: The bill would require the department to publish on its website if an educator surrendered their license amid an investigation into misconduct. It would also remove ways to justify denying access to case records under state open records laws and mandate the department fulfill requests for case records within 14 days, if an […]
Quinton Klabon: In 2024-2025, Wisconsin public schools employed more people than at any other time in state history.1 2 The problem: Wisconsin educated the fewest public-school students since 1991-1992.3 4 With schools set to have the fewest students since the 1950s in just 5 years, budgets are ripping at the seams.5 That fiscal cliff is […]
Jim Bender & Patrick McIlheran: Accused of gutting academic standards, manipulating report cards, slacking on fiscal oversight and bungling oversight of sexual misconduct among teachers, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is facing a crisis of confidence — and new questions about whether it is capable of handling myriad key functions. Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice […]
Dana Goldstein: “We do one book after state testing, and we did ‘The Great Gatsby.’ … A lot of kids had not read a novel in class before.” — Laura Henry, 10th-grade English teacher near Houston “My son in 9th grade listened to the audio of ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ For ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ […]
Jonathan Chait: Every once in a while, a state or city discovers a new and better way to educate poor children. Inevitably, a group of skeptics arises to insist that this new way doesn’t work, that even attempting to shrink the gap between rich and poor students is a fool’s errand. Strangely enough, these skeptics tend, […]
Richelle Wilson: Recent test scores show that only about half of Wisconsin students are proficient in reading. Those numbers are even more stark for Native American students. In 2022, only 5 percent of Native third graders in Brown County were reading at grade level. “To find out that 95 percent of our children were struggling — […]
Quinton Klabon: Is the Mississippi Miracle in reading real? Yeah! If anyone ever debunks it, it will not be people who cannot read a ranking chart. “To their credit, when I reached out to the authors about this mistake, they acknowledged it and reached out to get it fixed before publication.” Kelsey Piper: All right, […]