State ACT scores hold steady, lose ground to Minnesota

Wisconsin’s students maintained their composite score of 22.2 on the ACT college entrance exam, according to rankings released today, and extended their streak of finishing first or second in the nation to 16 years. The ACT is a major measure of academic achievement and Wisconsin’s students and educators deserve to be proud, said WEAC President Stan Johnson, but the threat to our excellence is evident in the fact that Minnesota was able to improve its composite score and gain sole possession of the number one ranking.

“The dedication of teachers, education support professionals, administrators, and parents deserves much of the credit for the fact that Wisconsin’s schools remain so strong,” Johnson said. “We are fast approaching a time when that will not be enough and we will no longer have great schools and classrooms that work.”

Johnson said the recent budget battle illustrates the struggle that Wisconsin’s great schools face in maintaining their excellence.

“Wisconsin has a school finance system in major need of reform and a Legislature that does not even want to honor the state’s commitment to fund two-thirds of the cost of public education,” Johnson said. “ As legislators debated how much to reduce the school aid in Governor Jim Doyle’s budget and whether it is necessary for teachers in taxpayer-funded voucher schools to have high school diplomas, the school district in Florence voted to shut its doors and school districts throughout the state wondered how to make ends meet under state-imposed revenue controls.”

According to research by WEAC and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators last year, more than two-thirds of the state’s districts laid off teachers and education support professionals; 68% increased class sizes; 60% reduced course offerings; 49% reduced programs for at-risk students; and 55% reduced programs for gifted children.

“Minnesota’s Legislature does not subject its school districts to these constraints, and that is why they are able to improve year after year while we are in jeopardy of losing the excellence we established before the revenue controls took hold,” Johnson said.