Wisconsin received an above-average grade for overall educational quality, although it ranked toward the bottom of the nation in efforts to improve schools by establishing grade-level academic standards and holding schools accountable, according to a report released Thursday.
The annual "Quality Counts" report, by national trade publication Education Week, gave the Badger state a C-plus for the overall status of its schools and improvement efforts. That was slightly higher than the grade given to the nation - a C - and ranked the state 16th among all the states and the District of Columbia.
Wisconsin fared best in the annual report for its school finance system and in a category the publication calls "chance for success," which measures factors from employment rates to kindergarten enrollment in states. The state was ranked ninth and 11th, respectively, in those areas, drawing B grades in each.
The state's lowest ranking came in the area of standards, assessments and accountability, with a C grade placing it 42nd in a category where 20 other states received grades of A or A-minus.
"There's some good news and there's some bad news, and it's not unexpected," Patrick Gasper, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, said of the report.
He pointed out the state is planning to change its standards and assessment systems. Wisconsin is among 48 states that have signed on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an effort to unify the benchmarks for what American students should know and when they should know it, with the intention of using that effort's recommendations to shape its math and E