African-Americans students in Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s fourth- and eighth-grade students overall scored above average on a national science assessment in 2009, but results continue to show worrisome trends for African-Americans. For black students in both grades, performance on the national science test was below average, and the achievement gap in eighth-grade science between Wisconsin’s black and white students was the highest in the nation, according to the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In fourth grade, black students in Wisconsin had an average score that was 43 points lower than white students in the state. By eighth grade, that performance gap widened to a 44-point difference. Hispanic fourth-graders in Wisconsin scored 26 points lower than their white peers in the state, better than the national average of a 32-point difference. But, by eighth grade, the performance gap of 30 points between the state's white and Hispanic students was about the same as the national average.