Here & Now

Abigail Swetz on Wisconsin's Persistent Achievement Gap

Frederica Freyberg:

On the matter of education, the candidates for governor have very different ideas about how to help learning outcomes for K-12 students in Wisconsin. Republican Tim Michels wants to expand private school choice to all students. Democrat Tony Evers wants to pump an extra $2 billion into education funding. Relatedly, what’s called the nation’s report card this fall showed overall Wisconsin students held steady in math and reading while nation-wide pandemic declines were worse. But the grim headline from the report for this state: once again, Wisconsin leads the nation in test score gaps between white and Black students.

In a pull-out from the report card for 8th grade math: “in 2022, Black students had an average score that was 53 points lower than for white students. Not significantly different, it said, from 2003.” Why is this happening and what is being done about it? We turn to the state Department of Public Instruction and its communications director, Abigail Swetz. Thank you for being here.

Abigail Swetz:

Of course, thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

In the younger grades, fourth grade math gaps showed Black students average scores were 48 points lower than for white students with reading scores 40 points lower. How is this happening?

Abigail Swetz:

It’s the right question to ask because it’s where we really need to be putting our focus and our resources. When we talk about these gaps, often people talk about them as an achievement gap. I’m really glad we are starting to stop using that phrase because achievement is an output, like test scores. What we need to be looking at is what are the inputs? What’s the opportunities that not all students are really able to access? That’s why we should be and we are starting to call it an opportunity gap, which is why what we can do is provide those opportunities and provide those resources in ways that we haven’t been able to in the past. I think one of the things that we can look at the most in that is what can we do in our budget to make sure that the students who need resources the most are the students who are getting them.

Frederica Freyberg:

There is also discussion among some experts that these standardized tests are biased in favor of white students because they are written by white people. Are they not possibly capturing the true skills and potential of Black students?

Abigail Swetz:

I think when you think about whether or not we are capturing the true potential of the student, you have to realize that no one test can do that. No one anything can do that and it’s one of the reasons the NAEP scores are an important window, but only one window into understanding where our students are really at in Wisconsin. Where are each student — where is each student at: Black students, white students, any students. When we think about what is a problem potentially with a certain standardized assessment, it’s why it’s really helpful that teachers are every day also collecting other kinds of data in their classrooms with comprehension checks and community building and discussions. When you put it all together, you gain a better understanding of where is a student at and how can we grow them even further. It’s one of the reasons we are so thankful we are able to really stay in contact with the field and it’s one of the reasons we pay attention a lot to those other kinds of data points as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

The pandemic may have made it worse, but this is a decades-long gap where the needle really has not moved. What about that?

Abigail Swetz:

It’s incredibly unfortunate and frankly unacceptable. It was unacceptable before. It’s unacceptable now and it’s why we need to really make focused investments to try and move that needle. I’ll give you an example. One of the places we are seeing the most struggle, in addition to this gap we’re talking about, is that students who are struggling before are struggling even more now. It’s the lower scores, we saw the steepest decline. It’s one of the many reasons we are trying to really increase our reimbursement rate for special education funding in Wisconsin because we think not all students in that category are special ed students. But it is a way to really move that needle and to make sure that the funds that are designed to get to where they need to get really, really do impact where we need them to impact.

Frederica Freyberg:

Clearly generations of Black students in Wisconsin are being left behind. What does that mean for all of Wisconsin?

Abigail Swetz:

It’s the right question again because I think we have to remember our schools and our communities and our students are so interconnected. We say all the time our students are our future. Our children are our future. That’s true whether we prepare them well or not. So we absolutely have to prepare them well. And it’s one of the reasons we are also looking at when we say opportunity gap, we also need to look at where is the representation gap? We need to diversify our teacher pipeline to make sure our students see themselves reflected in the leaders in their classroom and also in the curriculum that’s in front of them.

Frederica Freyberg:

With only about a minute left, as to overall scores, they may not have slipped over the pandemic like other states, but across grades the percentage of students testing proficient or above that is well below half, mostly in the 30% range. Where should Wisconsin be?

Abigail Swetz:

We should be not satisfied with where we are. We are on a journey in this. In terms of COIVD, we’re on a recovery journey, but even if we were further than we are today, we would want to keep growing. I think you have to remember this kind of journey is not linear. It requires a whole lot of work and that’s the kind of work we are committed to doing here at the Department of Public Instruction.

Frederica Freyberg:

Abigail Swetz, DPI, thanks very much.

Abigail Swetz:

Thank you.