Wisconsin’s Academic Achievement Gap Remains Nation’s Widest

New data released Wednesday shows Wisconsin has the widest achievement gap between black and white students out of all 50 states.

This is the second year in a row that Wisconsin has topped the list. Only the District of Columbia had a higher gap.

The data, collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, shows white students performed better as a group on fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading tests than their black peers.

According to Bradley Carl, a researcher with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, gaps between white and black students often foreshadow inequalities in other aspects of their lives.

“Incarceration gaps and educational attainment gaps and income gaps and all of these things will follow absolutely directly from the gaps in educational performance that we measure as early as third and fourth grade,” said Carl. “So, it’s a sneak preview of what’s to come. It’s not good. It’s a big problem.”

Earlier this week, preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Education showed that Wisconsin’s gap in graduation rates between black and white students is also the largest in the nation.