State scores above average overall on national science exam; achievement gap wide

According to the stats listed at the bottom of the article, "impoverished students and students with disabilities scored higher than the national average" - that kind of disproves the notion that poor students leads to poor results. I wonder what excuse Blacks will use now?? The USA government has poured billions into trying to close the White/Black education gap. First there was the "no child left behind" policy (or as I like to call it "test to some of the lowest standards") and now there is "race to the top" which is supposed to improve things but even now I expect it is really "race to barely acceptable results". This is a process of watching dominoes fall in slow motion. But, I guess throwing more money at the problem should stop the dominoes from falling... 

Wisconsin’s fourth- and eighth-grade students overall scored above average on a national science assessment in 2009, but results released Tuesday continue to show worrisome trends for African-Americans.

For black students in both grades, performance on the national science test was below average, and the achievement gap in eighth-grade science between Wisconsin’s black and white students was the highest in the nation, according to the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Administered in early 2009 to a representative sample of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders, the assessment aims to provide a common yardstick for measuring the scientific literacy of American students.

Students responded to multiple-choice and written-answer questions, and the test’s proficiency scale ranged from 0 to 300, with 150 representing average student performance.

Wisconsin's snapshot of results from the younger grades revealed:

• An average score of 157 for both fourth and eighth grades, eight points higher than the national average of 149 for both grades.
• In fourth grade, black students in Wisconsin had an average score that was 43 points lower than white students in the state. By eighth grade, that performance gap widened to a 44-point difference.
• Hispanic fourth-graders in Wisconsin scored 26 points lower than their white peers in the state, better than the national average of a 32-point difference. But, by eighth grade, the performance gap of 30 points between the state's white and Hispanic students was about the same as the national average.
• Some subgroups of students in Wisconsin outscored their peers nationally. English-language learners, impoverished students and students with disabilities scored higher than the national average in both fourth and eighth grades.

Source