Annysa Johnson:

Third- through eighth-grade students in Milwaukee’s private voucher and independent charter schools outperformed their public school counterparts in math and language arts, according to statewide assessment data released Wednesday by the Department of Public Instruction.

But Racine public school students overall outscored their voucher school counterparts. And on the ACT, voucher schools outscored their public counterparts in Milwaukee, Racine and the state.

Those are among the findings that emerged Wednesday after DPI made public the voucher, independent charter and the district-level public schools’ results of the 2014-’15 Badger Exam, ACT scores and the Dynamic Learning Maps exam given to students with severe cognitive disabilities.

School choice and charter school advocates touted the results as proof of the programs’ successes.