Standard & Poor's Recognizes 20 Wisconsin Schools for Narrowing Achievement Gaps (including Madison's Cherokee and Black Hawk)

Standard & Poors "School Matters":

Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services today announced it has identified 20 Wisconsin schools that have significantly narrowed the achievement gap between higher- and lower-performing student groups during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years. This is the first year Standard & Poor's conducted an achievement gap analysis in Wisconsin.

The 20 schools are located in 19 school districts throughout the state. One school district--Madison Metropolitan School District--has two schools that have significantly narrowed at least one achievement gap between student groups. And one of those two schools, was able to narrow the gap among multiple student groups.

Of the 20 Wisconsin schools that have narrowed the achievement gap, one school is recognized for reducing its black-white gap, two schools for narrowing the gap between Hispanic and white students, and 17 schools are recognized for narrowing the gap between economically-disadvantaged students and all students.

Brown Deer Middle School in the Brown Deer School District was the only school recognized for narrowing the achievement gap between its black and white students.

Two schools: Preble High School in the Green Bay Area School District and Cherokee High School in the Madison Metropolitan School District are recognized for narrowing the gap between Hispanic and white students.

More:

• Summary Findings 108K PDF
  
• Wisconsin Schools home page on S & P's School Matters site.
• Susan Troller:

  Black Hawk Middle School and Cherokee Middle School were hailed along with 18 other Wisconsin schools for significantly narrowing achievement gaps between groups of students in different demographic groups.

  Madison was the only district to have two schools cited for progress in this area, which has drawn increased scrutiny and concern among educators and parents nationwide over the past decade. In addition, Cherokee was the only school that was able to narrow the gap among multiple student groups.

  "This is a great boost for our staff as we go back to school next week," Cherokee Principal Karen Seno said. "It's an absolute recognition of their professionalism, commitment and the effectiveness of their practices."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 1, 2006 12:40 PM
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