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"Hispanic students in Wisconsin have made marginal improvement toward closing the achievement gap with their white classmates on math and science tests, although the same tests showed white and Asian students were still in a far better position to succeed in college or the workplace.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0About 55 percent of white students and 50 percent of Asian students were proficient or advanced in math in 2012-13, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Department of Public Instruction. Those results represented improvements of 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively over 2008-09 performances.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Over that same period, Hispanics improved just over 4 percent. However, the number of Hispanics considered proficient or advanced was only 28 percent. Blacks also did better, improving 2.5 percent to about 18 percent overall.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0The numbers appear lower than they've been in recent years because the state imposed a more rigorous definition of proficiency, said John Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Public Instruction. He said the new scores were based on stricter performance measurements, which help schools do a better job of evaluating how well they're preparing their students.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0\"These new proficiency levels do a better job of measuring college readiness,\" he said. \"They can be used to plan for courses and plan for future careers, and they can also be used to better provide classroom interventions.\"\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Overall, just under half of all Wisconsin students were considered proficient in math and just over one-third proficient in reading.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0The report also reinforced an earlier trend: while some voucher schools showed improvement, they still trailed public schools in general.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0For example, students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program showed 13 percent proficiency in math and 11 percent in reading, each a 1 percent improvement from last year. But across the entire state, 48 percent of students tested as proficient in math and 36 percent in reading.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Jim Bender, a spokesman for School Choice Wisconsin, a Milwaukee-based group that supports voucher programs, he said the report only offers a limited snapshot but comes up short in showing how voucher schools are improving over time.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0\"I would much rather have a comprehensive review of the schools under the report card with multiple years of data, graduation rates, attendance, all those other things than just a snapshot of attainment scores,\" he said.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Gov. Scott Walker has proposed expanding the current voucher program beyond Milwaukee and Racine, increasing the reimbursement for each student and allowing special needs students to participate.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Walker's voucher plan would expand the program to any district that has at least 4,000 students and at least two schools receiving a grade D or F on new state report cards. Under those criteria, the program would expand to nine districts next year: Beloit, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Sheboygan, Superior, Waukesha and West Allis-West Milwaukee.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said the reason Walker wants all schools that receive public funds to take part in the annual school report cards is because they can give a more complete picture of student performance over time.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0\"We need to give parents choices and alternatives to underperforming schools,\" he said in an email, \"and more quality data means parents can make informed choices for their children's education.\"\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0School leaders in all nine districts oppose Walker's plan, and state superintendent Tony Evers has said there's not enough evidence showing that voucher schools perform better than public schools to warrant such an expansion.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Tuesday's DPI report was based on the test performance of more than 430,000 public school students in third through eighth grades, as well as high school sophomores. They all took the tests as part of the Wisconsin Student Assessment System, which has been used every fall since 1992 to test students in reading and math.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0The state plans to start a new test in the spring of the 2014-15 school year for students in third through eighth grades. The current tests measure students' performance at only one point in the year, while the new system will have higher standards and measure progress throughout the school year.\u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0Johnson, the DPI spokesman, said that even though all minorities showed improvement on the most recent test he was still concerned about the growing achievement gap. He said it shows the continuing need to adequately fund the public school system as well as address the needs of students living in poverty who lack good housing, good transportation and proper nutrition.\u00A0\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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