A new study shows a growing gap between the top achieving schools in Wisconsin and those at the bottom

Associated Press:

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute found a larger performance gap between the 1996-97 school year and 2003-04, even when spending remained relatively level.

Researcher Phil McDade says the performance gap is mostly influenced by socio-economic factors beyond the influence of schools. He says poverty and race were found to affect student performance.

Tenth-graders in the top school districts scored nearly eleven percent better on standardized tests than the state average in 1996-97. By 2003-04 that had grown to 21 percent above average.

For schools in the bottom ten percent, students scored nearly 14 percent below the state average in 1996-97 and 17 percent below average in 2003-04.

Achievement gap growing, study says