2016 february fox times

Fox TimesFebruary 2016

A student–run publication

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CONTENTSFox Times | FEBRUARY 2016

AdvisorShannon Gerke [email protected]

Fox Times Staff MembersRich Weber – Editor In ChiefWilliam Miller – Layout & Design EditorEzra Kizewski – Photography Editor

ContributorsBrenda WinklerCortland Sue WattersAbigail Becker

Josh Buckley Zaida LandryBen Lee

4 From the Editor 5 Ask Foxy 6 Club Spotlight 9 Cheers and Jeers 10 Nobel Conference 14 Recipes 15 Kissing in History 16 The Do’s and Don’ts of Crushing

18 Foxy Valentine’s Centerfold 20 Faces of FVTC 22 From the Archives 24 CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND: INSIDE WISCONSIN’S ACHIEVEMENT GAP 37 Comics by Phil Hands

2 | FVTC STUDENT PUBLICATION | FEBRUARY 2016

Open Mic Kickoff Room E130 A/B 1:30p

Film: Higher Learning4th & February 5th Student Life 11a & 3p

Film: Guess Who’s Coming to DinnerFebruary 9th & February 10th Student Life 11a & 3p

Film Series Discussion10th E130A/B 12:30p

Film: The HelpFebruary 17th Student Life 11a & 3p

Film Series Discussion16th Room E130 A/B 2:30p

Film: SelmaFebruary 24th Student Life 11a & 3p

Film Series Discussion23rd & February 24th Student Life 11a & 3p

Words Hurt Panel DiscussionFebruary 25th E130 1:30p

2016 Black History MonthEvent Schedule


[email protected]


Happy February everyone! For those of you with Valentine’s congratulations! For those of you without, well you’ll get them next year tiger!

The countdown has begun, Bill and I graduate in May! After this issue there are exactly 3! Yes, just 3 issues of the Fox Times left under our tutelage. It has been a wonderful ride of being on time, hitting deadlines, recruiting new talent, wrangling Adobe InDesign into a workable interface, and my crash course in photography. Over these last issues we will be including new content and throwing in some “best of” from the archives. Yes, I am a sentimental softy.

Let’s get to what is happening this month!

February is Black History Month and Multicultural Student Services in conjunction with Student Life is hosting several movie days in Spectators, right outside of Student Life room E137. Anthony Miller from MSS will be facilitating discussions of these movies after they are completed. See the Black History Month flyer contained within this issue for dates and details. I hope to see many of you in Spectators and at the discussions.

Student Government and a number of invited students are traveling to Madison for the Wisconsin Student Government Legislative Summit, February 14-16. The March issue will have a full wrap-up of our trip to advocate on behalf of all technical college students.

Jokes for Dinner, Casino Night, the final two home basketball games, and a number of other student organization events are happening this month. Be sure to keep an eye on the Fox Times Facebook page, or the Student Life page for more information. I try to be as current as possible, so let me know if I have missed an event.

The silly season is upon us, though it feels like it started a year or two ago. Yes, the election is upcoming in November. Sigh. I am already tired of the radio, television, internet, you name it advertisements. Voter fatigue is what they hope for, lower voter turnouts benefit the select few, not the many. Remember to vote in the primaries if your areas offer them.

What else is going on? There is a new student organization on campus, We Are (correct me if the name is wrong) is an organization that desires to bring awareness to sexual and domestic violence. I will follow up with them for next month, I’m hoping to have their contact information and officer list soon.

There is always something else going on, so tune into the Facebook pages for updates on the happenings at FVTC.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Rich

F rom The Edit or

Do you like what you see within these pages? Then join us. Do you think you can do better? Then get up off your duff and

do it. If you need article suggestions, let me know. Email me at

[email protected]

Articles WantedF x Times


Dear Foxy, Your magazine sucks. As a school you should be neutral but your magazine came across very liberal and left wing. It annoyed me I will never read it again. Right something better.Conservatively Yours

Dear Conservatively, Thank you for your feedback. I enjoy hearing that our publication has touched someone, though in your case it seems to have been what is considered a “bad touch”. I will speak with the magazine and ensure that it behaves and keeps its pages to itself from now on. Remember, the Fox Times is the voice of the students, which means you are welcome to contribute articles and be published in the magazine. If you have ideas please come to our meetings on Fridays at 2:30 in Student Life or send us your articles at [email protected].

Dear Foxy, The paper is looking more and more professional each issue. What is your secret to success? I also notice there are a lot of contributors now. A Fan

Hey A Fan, Thank you, the Editorial Board has worked very hard over the past two years to produce a publication that the students of Fox Valley Technical College can be proud of. I am biased of course, but I feel our magazine is the best college paper in the state and challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

Dear Foxy, Valentines is coming around once again. Last year the Fox Times was banned on campus for “unsavory content”. Do you plan on keeping it cleaner this year? By the way, thank you for autographing my contraband copy of that issue. I love it. Cupid

Hi Cupid!It was my pleasure to sign your contraband copy that no one is supposed to have and I was supposed to destroy all copies of. So we will not speak of it again. Shhhh. Foxy behave? Who do you think I am? That goody two shoes Sly Fox? Let’s just say in this issue you’ll find the answer to that age old question. “What does the fox say?”

Submit comments or questions for Foxy at [email protected].

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SGA Updateby Rich Weber

It was recently brought to my attention that I hadn’t given an update on Student Government doings here in the Fox Times. I apologize for the oversight. Anyhow, let’s get to what has been happening with your SGA.

We recently had our Secretary Susan Reed step down to focus more on her studies, we wish her the best! Replacing Susan is Gunther Krause a Network Administrations Systems student. We look forward to seeing the great things Gunther brings to the team!

Something big we have coming this month is the Wisconsin Student Government Legislative Summit, February 14-16 in Madison. The SGA Executive Board along with a select group of emerging student leaders will attend the summit.

The capper to the event is on February 16, when student leaders descend upon the Capitol building and meet with legislators and advocate on behalf of all technical college students.

I attended this event last year and it was a great success as each of our advocacy items was either adopted or shuttered. This year our points of emphasis are increasing college affordability across the board, and the transferal of program credits. We anticipate being just as successful this year as last.

Next month will include a full wrap up of the summit and what we learned and can pass forward for future students.

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FVTC Campus EventsFebruary 2016February 1 Biggest Loser Student Life Edition Begins

February 2 Involvement Fair - Appleton Campus Welcome Back Day - Oshkosh Riverside

February 3 Student Government Association Meeting - 3:30 PM, C140 Pizza Night - 5:30 PM, AMTC

February 4 S.L.I.C.E - 11:30 AM, E130 Pizza Night - 5:30 PM, Spanbauer S.L.I.C.E - 11:30 AM, Oshkosh Student Resource Center

February 5 Wear Red for Women

February 8 Basketball vs. Silver Lake College, 6:00 PM & 7:30 PM

February 9 Fat Tuesday @ FVTC Regional Centers College Preview Night, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Concerts in the Commons - Nelly’s Echo, Appleton Commons, 11:30 AM

February 11 WTCS Ambassador screening

February 13-16 WSG Legislative Conference

February 16 Speaker: Dennis Biddle: 11:30 AM, Oshkosh Riverside Room 133

February 17 Pool Tournament - 11:00 AM, Student Life Center Student Government Association Meeting - 3:30 PM, E130 Coffee, Juice and Donuts - 7:30 AM, AMTC & Spanbauer WTCS Ambassador Selection

February 18 Live Comedy with Chris James - 11:30 AM, Oshkosh Riverside Jokes for Dinner: Chris James - 5:30 PM, E130

February 22 Speaker: Ace Champion - 11:30 AM, Appleton One-On-One Wellness Sign Ups - 12:00-2:00 PM, Entrance 15

February 23 One-On-One Wellness Sign-Ups, 12:00 - 2:00 PM, PSTC

February 29 WTCS Ambassador Banquet


Accounting Clubby Ben LeeOn November 18, 2015, the FVTC Accounting Club went on a field trip to the IMA Winnebagoland meeting for some exposure to influential people in the various positions available after college in the accounting field. At this meeting, the IMA Winnebagoland chapter held a panel allowing attending students to pose questions they had regarding the accounting field in general, the positions, and that of personal experiences in the field by the panelists. The panelists featured at the meeting included: Curt Esser, CMA and owner of Esser Consulting, LLC (Prior WI Tissue); Martha Paalman, Finance Manager for Bemis North America; Patti Denton, CPA, MBA, CFO of Girl Scouts; Dale Glen, CPA currently with CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP and UW-O; Dr. Stephen Makar, Professor at UW-O; and finally Tina Krueger, CPA as a business consultant.

The meeting started out with a very nice family style dinner followed by the question and answer session presented to the panel. Two of the most common items that the panelists touched on during the question and answer session was that of networking and soft skills. It was repeatedly brought up that who you know can help further you in your career path and to be a good friend and colleague as you interact with all people. When the soft skills were brought up, they stated on a number of occasions that it is very difficult to teach soft skills to people. Soft skills as they described them included not just work ethics, but specifically in the accounting field, the ability to talk to people in a respectful, engaged manner that included trying to say things in a way that the person or people you were talking to would understand no matter their background. As it was stated by one panelist, the ability to talk in other than accounting language. They stated repeated how much they value this in their employees and look for it in their interviewees. It was touched on a number of times that while it is great if you did awesome in your classes, that you should not

worry to an excess if you did not because many of the things you learned in them could be easily taught or retaught on the job, which is why they look for the soft skills, they are so much harder for them to teach.

The panelists also went over what all the different letters meant for the accounting professions

and what a college student entering into the field would need to consider when trying to decide what letters they wished to place after their name. For example, it was stated that if you wanted to go into the management position in a factory you may want to consider first getting your CMA before a CPA. The reason given for this was that CMA tended to be forward thinking and looking for ways to improve the cash flows in the company to help it to grow, whereas, a CPA tends to look backwards and evaluate and analyze what happened in the past of the company and sends that info on to the management that needs it to report to investors.

After the question and answer session, the panelists, IMA chapter members and guests broke out into groups at the tables and played a game that allowed people at their table to ask a question and for each person to answer so that everyone could get to know each other a little better. This was a great way for the students and members to grow their network.

I would encourage anyone interested in the full notes for this meeting to contact an officer of the accounting club, or if you are interested in hearing more about it or how to join. You never know who you may meet that may help pave the way to your dream!

Fox Times is looking for photographers willing to take

random pictures, attend sports events, and attend school events.

Email [email protected] if interested!

Attendees from Fox Valley Technical College Accounting Club


Cheers to our Advisor Shannon Gerke Corrigan being nominated and making it to the top 25 of the Fox Cities Future 15 Young Professionals! Congrats Shannon! Well deserved.

Cheers to the Mens & Womens Foxes basketball teams! Despite awful refereeing both teams have persevered this season and continue to grind! Keep grinding Foxes!

Cheers to Peyton Manning for being the epitome of what an athlete can be, on and especially off the field.

Cheers to all of the active Fox Valley Technical College student organizations! Your overwhelming generosity towards the food pantry, Adopt a Family, and plethora of off campus volunteering is second to none.

Cheers to Megan Kososki and Brenda Winkler!

Jeers to politics in general. My goodness, how about we all work together towards the common good?

Jeers to people that profit and take advantage of tragedies. Making fake Go Fund Me pages based on deceased children is reprehensible.

Jeers to Death. Leave the musical icons of my youth alone. David Bowie, Lemmy Kilmeister, and all of the others. Start working on your awful people list and leave the good ones for us to enjoy.

Jeers to the Making a Murderer “documentary”. To make a documentary you have to portray accurately both sides, not just one highly slanted side. Shame on you.

If you wish to submit a cheer or jeer, send an email to [email protected] with cheers and jeers in the subject line.

CheersJeers


by Cortland Sue WattersOn October 5th and 6th, Mankato, MN hosted the 51st annual Nobel Conference. The conference this year was on “Exploring the science of an equal opportunity addiction.” There were 4500 attendees at the conference and 10,000 more watching via live stream. Of these attending 1,250 were high school students and 1,500 were college students. Howard Hughes medical grant helps make this possible by providing an outreach program that helps with programs and conferences for attending relevant curriculum. Amazingly over 25 million people are addicted to something and that means that the chances of you or someone you know being affected by addiction in some way is likely.

The first speaker was Eric Kandel, MD. His speech was on the brain and memory. He talked about how life teaches us who we are and memory makes us who we are. Learning and retained memory are the glues that hold our mental life together. Implicit memory deals with skills and habits, explicit memory deals with people, objects and places. Addiction changes the brain and affects who you are and how your mind stores and uses experiences. Addiction creates, new, different, and often harmful synapses in the brain. Typically the process can be reversed. When speaking of addiction both the mind and the body are addicted.

The second speaker was Denise Kandel, PhD. Denise Kandel did her lecture on “Molecular Basis for the Gateway Hypothesis.” She mentions smoking cigarettes is a direct correlation to the use of other drugs in a sequence. Smoking is a priming device and is proven in lab settings to enhance other drugs by “pretreating” the system. She states, “Smoking cigarettes is the true gateway to drug usage.” On the rise is the use of E-cigarettes, which have not been proven safe. Nicotine is nicotine no matter if it is an e-cigarette or an actual cigarette. Also leading to probable addiction and use of other drugs as nicotine is the gateway.

The third speaker was Sheila Murphy, PhD on “Understanding Prescription Drug Misuse from Sociological Perspective.” The top prescription drugs used

are Adderall, oxycodone, Vicodin, and Xanax. Prescription drugs are used for initiation in social processing by reciprocity which is exchanging with others for mutual benefits, social profit, exchanging things with others for social benefits, to gain popularity, connect, and make friends. Also for advocacy which is sharing to promote

Nobel Conference

Jason Lilly, Cortland Sue Watters, Wolfgang Wallschlaeger.


physical, emotional, and social well-being of others. Lastly brokering is part of the initiation in social process, which is acting as a buffer between users and the larger drug market. Prescription drugs are generally viewed as clean and safe for a wide variety of reasons. Families are more apt to endorse and condone prescription drug use than street drugs. Many people use and condone prescription drug use because it is FDA approved, off the streets, out of the public eye, and not under scrutiny by the police. Ms. Murphy alludes to “Dr. Dealers” who are legalized drug dealers. These doctors can write prescriptions, and/or teach people exactly what to say and do to have them written elsewhere. Many times prescription drugs are obtained from parents, friends and peers, and in neighborhoods. They gain access to prescription drugs from personal physician prescriptions, student health centers, friend’s prescriptions, family sharing, and from buying on the street. People are motivated to use for curiosity, performance enhancement, and to self-medicate themselves both physically and mentally. Prescription drug abuse is most likely to happen in high schools, colleges, social gatherings and parties, work, and alone. Mixing prescription drugs with street drugs, other prescriptions, or alcohol can be deadly. She states that “the use of ‘Lock Zone,’ which counteracts overdose, should be widely funded and endorsed.”

The fourth speaker Dr. Carl Hart spoke on “Why Drug-Related Research is Biased: Who Benefits and Who Pays.” Dr. Hart believes that educating and treatment are the combination needed, not jail and treatment. He states that there needs to be more education about drugs, their effects, and responsible usage. He feels that people are realistically always going to use drugs, therefore, we need to teach and regulate as we do for prescription drugs, sex, and even driving. He feels that many drugs have been demonized. For example, Meth is not a new drug; it is used to treat ADD, ADHD and various diet medications. Scientists tend to focus on the negative aspects because they do not want to appear to be encouraging or endorsing drug use. NIDA funds 90% of the world’s research on these issues. The mission of NIDA is to focus on all the bad effects of abuse and use for grant and funding purposes. Science exaggerating the bad effects is not accurate as most drug users do not have abuse issues and often times lead responsible productive lives. Dr. Hart gave examples of presidents Obama, Clinton, and Bush who have openly admitted to drug usage in their past. There is a disproportionate view and that determines who gets published, what is seen in textbooks and scientific literature. It even determines the funding, laws and treatment strategies. When wrong information is used it increases budgets in the wrong areas such as law enforcement, treatment providers, and politicians instead of education. He states that we need to put the time and effort in, do the work and know the science. Know the facts able to help, educate youth on drugs and drug usage, call out the people on the misinformation, call out racial discrimination, work to change the legal status of drugs: decriminalization versus legalization, and most importantly educate. We need to find out what the problem really is instead of blaming drugs. We need to do more assessments on people with good therapists to look beyond the drug and look at the person. We need to quit blaming genetics, no kids under the same roof grew up the same as the first child was an only child, the second one shared attention, the third had two siblings, etc.; also the parents are in very different places in life with each consecutive child.

The final speaker at the conference was Owen Flanagan, PhD who spoke on “Willing Addicts? Drinkers, Dandies, Druggies, and Other Dionysians.” Flanagan states that a willing addict prefers to be an addict, whereas an unwilling addict wants to quit but doesn’t know how. People want to do what they want to do and this is why people stay in addiction.

Currently there aren’t many different treatment options. We currently have a one size fits all treatment system. One out of Ten people who needs help actually gets treatment. The dropout rates for treatment are very high. Out of Ten treatment programs, seven to eight of these involve the 12-steps of AA. There are other options available for treatment, which could include cognitive behavior therapy and motivational enhancement therapy. There is much to learn and explore in the realm of drug usage, addiction, treatment and recovery. We must remember that people who become addicted are not bad! These people have just played bad games. Cortland gets an autograph.


Many responsible students go through financial challenges. We can help you make informed decisions and take control of your finances. It’s confidential and free. Get assistance with:

• budgeting• using credit wisely• managing debt• credit reports

We offer a variety of services to meet the individual needs of each student. Options include one-on-one counseling and regularly scheduled group workshops. Feel free to call or stop by Room E121 at FVTC’s Appleton Campus if you have a question or would like to schedule an appointment.

Located at:Fox Valley Technical CollegeCounseling Services — Room E1211825 N. Bluemound Drive, Appleton(920) 735-4855

Hours:8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday-Tuesday9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Friday

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“Credit Tricks and Traps”Used wisely, credit can help us live richer lives. But if we overuse credit, debt can build up and feel unmanageable. This workshop explains, how to make credit work for you, avoid credit traps, and reduce debt.

To register, call (920) 735-4855 or stop in Counseling Services.

The FISC Counselor helps you:• Understand financial options open to you• Reduce financial stress• Develoop a plan to make the most of your money• Manage debt and use credit wiselywww.fvtc.edu/financialwellness

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Supported by a grant from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.

Want financialpeace of mind?Discover options to

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An FVTC and Goodwill/FISC Partnership


Chocolate-Espresso MartiniIngredients:* Cocktail shakerIce4 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped¼ cup water2/3 cup brewed espresso, chilled2/3 cup Kahlua2/3 cup vanilla-flavored vodka

Directions:1) Combine the chocolate and 1/4 cup water in a small bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water.

Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth (2 minutes). Set aside to cool slightly.

2) Dip the rims of 4 martini glasses into the melted chocolate, allowing any excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl. Chill the glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes.

3) Mix together the espresso, coffee liqueur and vodka. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the mixture and shake for 10 seconds. Strain the mixture into the prepared glasses and serve.

Makes 4 servings

Strawberry Budini Parfait“Budini” is Italian for puddings*You will need 12, 3-4 oz. glasses (wine glasses work well)

Ingredients8 oz. cream cheese, softened6 Tbsp. sweet marsala cheese, divided in half4 Tbsp. whipping cream or heavy cream2 Tbsp. sugar1 Tbsp. sugar2 Cups sliced strawberries (raspberries or blueberries may be substituted)2 Cups macaroon or sugar cookies, coarsely crushed

Directions1. Mix together cream cheese, 3 Tbsp. Marsala cheese,

whipping cream, and 2 Tbsp. sugar. Set aside.2. Mix together strawberries, 3Tbsp. Marsala cheese, and

1 Tbsp. sugar. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.3. Place spoonful of cookie crumbs into bottom of glass.

Fill glass 2/3 full with strawberry mixture (step 2). Top glass with cream cheese mixture (step 1). Add strawberry garnish.

4. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.


Kissing in Historyby Brenda WinklerIs a kiss just a kiss? Contrary to popular belief, kissing isn’t just a display of affection but a greeting in many cultures and yet 10% of the world doesn’t practice kissing in any form. Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist, makes reference to India as being the birth place of the kiss through ancient Hindu scriptures that refer to it as “sharing one another’s breath” and believed it spread West after the 326 BC invasion of India by Alexander the Great. Since this time there remain parts of India where the open practice of kissing is viewed as indecent and punishable by serving time in jail.

Greek and Italian cultures have a fondness for kissing not only as a sign of love but they greet each other with a kiss on the cheek or each cheek and Romans sealed political and legal contracts with a kiss to make them binding. As this custom spread, other countries made modifications to it or shared their version of the kiss.

France has given us many great gifts, but none compare to the “French Kiss” which this writer is thankful for. Brought back by WWII soldiers, this “kiss with tongues” didn’t have a specific name until recently. Let’s face it, something that titillating doesn’t require a name.

Weather you prefer the term smooch, lip lock, tonsil hockey, necking, snogging, making out, seven minutes in heaven, sucking face, first base, swapping spit, pash, or giving sugar to somebody, not everyone participates. In fact, the Inuit rub noses together in what’s called an “Eskimo Kiss” and the Maori of New Zealand press their noses and foreheads together. Thailand’s “sniff kiss” is a greeting in which a person presses their lips together and inward while pressing their nose to the other person’s cheek and sniffing. Regardless of which bonding custom you practice, do so with respect to each other and have a Happy Valentine’s Day.


The Do’s and Don’ts of Crushingby Josh Buckley and Zaida Landry

We have all had someone (or will have) someone who makes us feel special in a way that you can’t describe with words. Since words are useless at times, that’s when we turn to body language and a sense of imagination to help express how we feel about that special someone. In order to be successful in communicating to the one that you have eyes for, there are certain things that you can do (and should not do) to help move to the next step with the hope of having a blossoming relationship. (If you’re into that sort of thing.) Here are some of the responses that we gathered from some of our peers here on campus:

Don’ts:Stalk: This includes in person as well as in the virtual world. It’s nice to show some love on a status or picture here and there, but if you go through my entire album from 2010, then you need to find someone else to be creepy with. (Ain’t nobody got time for that!)

Stare at the Booty: Many people are blessed with assets that just can’t be ignored. It’s hard to go against human instinct and not stare with our mouth gaping open, but please don’t make it obvious that you are admiring what the person is working with. Keep it on the down low.

Play Yourself Up: We all know there are many great qualities about each and every one of us, but lets be honest, we aren’t all Christian from Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s nice to highlight some of the greatness that we possess, but don’t lay it on too strong or someone might go running the other way. Leave some things for later. This way the person can get to know you and not have to deal with disappointment in the end.

Draw Too Much Attention: In this day and age everyone just wants to be noticed. There are many ways that one can go about doing that. There is always someone watching what is going on, and if you show yourself in a negative light that’s a major turn off. Don’t make an ass of yourself just to try and impress someone. Keep it classy, not trashy.

Lie: You can’t start a relationship based on lies. You might be able to get by with it in the beginning, but the truth will eventually reveal itself and hurt any chance that you had with that person.

Be Overly Aggressive: It’s nice to show interest in someone, but you must know your boundaries. There are lines that just can’t be crossed. Don’t try and push yourself on to someone. This can be suffocating and make them want to

put a lot of distance between you and them. Pay attention to how they react to the things that you say and some of your actions, and gage it from there. Being observant is a great skill to have when it comes to this matter.

Do’s: Smile: Everyone loves a nice smile. A smile can sometimes win or lose your crush. A nice soft smile can make your crush realize how adorable you really can be. Smile to hard and your crush might think you’re being just a bit to creepy.

Compliment: Everyone like to be complimented every once in awhile, they like to know that what they are doing is working. Complimenting the same person to many times can make them feel as if you’re spending a little to much time looking at them. Keep the compliments on a simple bases, just to let your crush know you’re interested.

Offer to pay for lunch- You can’t say that you don’t like it when someone else notices the bill before you do. If you’re looking to impress that someone special you have eye on try buying them lunch. Little gestures can sometime go along way.

Be Happy- When you look at someone who is always sad and expresses it, it can be a little annoying. Pick up your mood a bit, show everyone how strong you can be. Your crush could always notice and like seeing you happy.

Gifts- When going through a rough or stressful time it is sometimes nice to know that someone is thinking of you. Getting gifts to show that you’re the person thinking can help a lot (the cuter the better!)

Hygiene- Keeping your appearance up is always best. When everyone looks and can tell that you keep up with your appearance it turns heads. It makes you stand out and people like that.

Fox Times is looking for photographers willing to take random pictures, attend sports events, and attend school events. Email [email protected] if interested!


Community First looks out for

me, whether it’s my auto loan,

checking or my credit card!”Chelsy Lingenhag, Member/Owner

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APPLETON2626 S. Oneida St.509 N. Richmond St.2701 N. Ballard Rd.455 S. Nicolet Rd.1235 W. Spencer St.DARBOYW6089 Cty. Rd. KKKIMBERLY600 W. Kimberly Ave.

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We can help you develop skills that will change how you view the world. The educational experiences we offer will prepare you for today’s global workforce. We help develop skills to give you a competitive advantage in your career or career search. Travel with FVTC to Ireland, Panama, Jamaica, and Germany Earn elective credits as you expand your world view and immerse yourself in study abroad, or language immersion programs. Choose from 8-14 day programs or longer. For more information, contact Aaron Gorenc: [email protected]. NEW Certificate — Intercultural Relations — By earning this certificate, you will develop intercultural skills – a demand in today’s global business environment. Explore the impact of culture on work behavior, and advance your knowledge and understanding of other cultures. Did you know that FVTC offers 12 world languages and you can earn elective credit? Find our spring 2016 schedule at: www.fvtc.edu/Global (Some online language options are also available.)

Experience the World with Fox Valley Technical College

www.fvtc.edu/Global Contact us: [email protected] | 920-735-4810 | G130

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What Makes You Different from Other Graduates?

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Czy mówisz po polsku?

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From the Archives - January 2013

A Fox Valley Student Publication www.fvtc.edu/foxtimes Month 2012

22

Club RecruitmentThis is one event you won’t want to miss. FVTC

has over forty clubs related to various programs and hobbies. Clubs are a great opportunity to become involved with the school. Also, they provide an opportunity to meet others with similar interests. Stop in the commons January 11th, 2013 from 11am-1pm to see which one is a good fit for you.

PAIN IN THE GLOSSUSBy: Ashley Schider, Brooke Hietpas, Jeff Thie

The table clinic explained many complications that can arise due to the growing phenomenon of tongue piercing. Items covered were not only common site specific dental problems such as tooth chipping and gingival recession, but also

the less common and less heard of microbiologi-cal factors that can lead to local and systemic

infections. Upon conclusion of the information presented, the participants walked away with in-

Brooke Hietpas, Ashley Schider, Jeff Thiel –FVTC Third Year Dental Hygiene Students1st Place Table Clinic Wisconsin Dental Hygienists’ Association2012 Indigo Conference

Local Infection that developed after a tongue piercing note all the brown debris on tongue THAT’S PLAQUE –Medical term bacteria!

formation of the best medicine for tongue pierc-ing. Dental professionals and the public need to

be educated and aware of the many problems associated with tongue piercings. People need to know that not only tooth chipping and gum reces-

sion can occur from a tongue piercing but they also need to be educated on the systemic risks of tongue piercings and the table clinic the students presented at the state Dental Hygiene Conference focused on systemic problems that can develop.

The extensive research Ashley, Jeff, and Brooke did show the hard work they put into it. It also shows that they understand the importance of educating dental professionals and the public of the detriments of tongue piercing. If you would like to read the whole article, email Sharri Crowe (FVTC Community Dental Health Instructor) and I would be happy for forward the information to you [email protected] .

Macey Griffith and Karleah Edseth – FVTC third year Dental Hygiene Students1st Place Table Clinic Wisconsin Dental Hygienists’ Association2011 Indigo Conference


Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. This month I thought it would be interesting to interview another favorite author of mine, Ireland’s own Paul Freeman. A quick look at his bio from the Amazon page.

“Paul Freeman is from Dublin, Ireland, where he works, plays and writes. In the past he has lived in Germany and America but is now content to keep his roaming to the worlds he creates and writes about.

Tribesman is his first published novel. Season of the Dead is a zombie apocalypse novel written with three other authors, Sharon Van Orman (lykaia) Lucia Adams (Vein Fire) Gerald Johnston (Dropcloth Angels). He has also published a short story in the steampunk anthology, Strange Tales From the Scriptorium Vaults.”

FT — Exposure is the biggest obstacle for Indie/Small Press Authors, how have you battled that, and do you suggest anyone follow the path you have laid?

Paul — Lord no, I’d advise anyone to do the exact opposite to everything I’ve done. It’s hard to gain exposure without major backing, you’ll always be a tiny voice among the multitudes, jumping up and down, straining your voice to be heard. There are great people out there supporting indie authors — running blogs and e-zines, writing reviews and promoting authors. Even then it takes time to develop relationships and build up trust.

FT — Which of your published works are you most proud of? Why?

Paul — It’s impossible to choose among them really. Tribesman was my first published work, I love the characters and the story, the love/hate relationship between Culainn and his god Morrigu, the clash of cultures. Somebody once described it as old school adventure, and that’s exactly what I was going for, because that’s the thing I love. I grew up reading books like Lord of the Rings, The Adventures of Robin Hood and watching the old swashbuckler movies. Warrior, the second book in the series follows the same line, but I think the characters have become more developed, and the writing, I hope, sharper.

Season of the Dead was something outside of my comfort zone, for several reasons, not least of which was collaborating with three other authors. I love the concept of four voices within the one novel, four threads to a story. Of course, it was challenging working with other people, but very enjoyable, and I learned a lot from three fabulous writers… I’m not sure what I brought to the table, but I certainly took a lot away from it.

FT — Any exciting projects coming up this year of yours, or compilations? Can you give any juicy details yet, or are they top secret?

Paul — Well yes, now that you mention it. My publisher has just released a speculative fiction themed short story collection with contributions from all of the Cogwheel

authors, A turn Of The Wheel, I have a couple of shorts and several flash fiction pieces (very short stories, typically under 1k words) in it.

I’m currently working on a new epic fantasy novel, possibly the beginning of a new series, it’s a little different to Tribesman, in so far as the focus isn’t so much on one main character, but instead has several threads running concurrently. After that, I’ll probably go back and write a third Tribesman book. I could probably go on and on with Culainn and Morrigu, but I think people like closure, and there are some loose threads in need of tidying up. Having said that, who knows what might scream at me from inside my head.

FT — St. Patrick’s Day is a huge deal here in America, centering mainly around Leprechauns and drinking green beer. How do those of you that actually live in Ireland view our “celebrations” and could you tell us how someone in Ireland would celebrate the day?

Paul — We’re pretty amazed at how it’s celebrated worldwide, every year all of the standout monuments and attractions around the world from the Eifel Tower to the Pyramids have green lights shone on them, it’s great that everybody considers themselves Irish for the day, and really a testament to how the Irish diaspora has had such an effect on the World. There are over ten times the number of Americans claiming Irish ancestry than there are Irish people living in Ireland. As for us, we’ll be watching parades and listening to traditional Irish music in the pubs around the country. Not sure about the green beer though, that green food dye seriously messes with a good pint.

FT — Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate it a great deal.

Paul — Cheers, Rich. I genuinely appreciate the support.

For more of the interview, check out “Papi Talk!...With Paul Freeman 2014” on The Literary Syndicate. Paul can be found on Facebook, under the “Tribesman” name.

Interview of Paul FreemanBy: Rich Weber

From the Archives - March 2014

Paul Freeman


CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND: INSIDE WISCONSIN’S ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Wisconsin’s black-white achievement gap worst in nation despite decades of efforts ‘We’re at a point where we cannot go failing another generation of people,’ UW-Madison education professor Gloria Ladson-Billings warnsby Abigail BeckerWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

When Madison Memorial High School sophomore Demitrius Kigeya solves math problems in his head, other students give him surprised looks. He believes it is because he is black.

“I just pay attention in class and do my homework,” said Kigeya, 15.

Odoi Lassey, 16, a junior, echoed Kigeya’s feelings.

“People don’t expect you to know anything,” explained Lassey, who, like Kigeya, is a high academic performer, plays on the high school soccer team and is active in Memorial’s Black Student Union.

“It’s almost as if you know something, they think you’re weird or you’re acting white … some people think you’re not black just because you try to help yourself out and do well in school.”

Demitrius Kigeya, a sophomore at Madison Memorial High School, is a high academic achiever, plays on the school soccer team and is actively involved in the school’s Black Student Union. He says some of his classmates do not expect him to do well in school because he is black.

Michelle Stocker/The Capital Times

Odoi Lassey, a junior at Madison Memorial High School, can count on one hand the number of minority students in his advanced placement classes. This semester, he is taking Advancement Placement biology and English.

Abigail Becker / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism


The negative stereotype that follows students such as Kigeya and Lassey is rooted in Wisconsin’s dismal racial academic achievement record.

A Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism review of two decades of data pertaining to black-white academic disparities yielded few signs of progress. In fact, the gap has widened in some areas during that time.

Today, Wisconsin ranks the worst in the nation for:

• The difference between how well black and white students perform on a national benchmark test.

• The likelihood that black students will be suspended from school.

• The difference between black and white student graduation rates.

Although Republican Gov. Scott Walker has touted Wisconsin’s educational gains under his administration, students of color for the most part are not sharing in that success. Data reviewed by the Center show many troubling patterns essentially unchanged throughout the tenures of Walker’s predecessors, including Democrat Jim Doyle and Republicans Scott McCallum and Tommy Thompson.

Today marks the first installment in the Center’s investigation, Children Left Behind: Inside Wisconsin’s Achievement Gap, that in coming weeks will explore reasons for faltering performance and ways to improve the state of education for Wisconsin’s poor children and students of color.

Wisconsin has been labeled one of the worst states in the nation for black children based on measures including poverty, single-parent households and math proficiency. Statewide, just over 15 percent of black students tested proficient on statewide exams in math, compared to 43 percent of white students, according to 2013-14 test scores from the state Department of Public Instruction.

Tony Evers, the state superintendent of public instruction since 2009, conceded there is only one way to describe Wisconsin’s achievement gap: “It’s extraordinarily horrible.”

The gap, he said, has racial and economic causes.

“Wisconsin has a history of not being able to solve this issue and, frankly, not being able to lift people of color out of poverty in any significant way,” Evers said.

“Can we do more in our schools? Yes, and we should do more. But the fact of the matter is, we need the entire state to rally around people of poverty or this will never be

solved in a satisfactory way.”

The struggles of Wisconsin’s black students are particularly stark, considering the state’s students as a whole perform at or above national averages on standardized tests, the class of 2014 graduated at the third-highest rate in the nation, and Wisconsin high schoolers are among the top scorers on the college aptitude ACT test.

The shortfalls in Wisconsin dramatize the failure of national efforts to raise achievement levels. Congress passed the No

Child Left Behind Act in 2001 in an effort to close the achievement gap, placing great emphasis on standardized testing. However, Congress left the law behind after years of partisan bickering. President Barack Obama signed the changes into law Dec. 10.

The new law shifts more power to states and districts. States are still required to take steps to improve the lowest performing schools, but the bill does not mandate specific action if those goals are not met.

Evers said the bill provides an “opportune” time to discuss equity in schools.

“Allowing states to explore different methods, centered on their needs, to tackle achievement gaps will ensure that all students graduate ready for college and career,” he said in a statement.

Tests show lagging performanceTest results released in October from the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a set of tests known as the Nation’s Report Card, reaffirmed Wisconsin’s poor record of educating black children: The state had the worst achievement gap between black and white students in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math. This is the second time in a row Wisconsin has been ranked the worst among the states assessed.

Wisconsin also has the biggest disparity in graduation rates between black and white students, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Education. The rate for black students in Wisconsin held steady in 2013-14 at 66 percent, while the graduation rate for white students rose a half-point from just over 92 percent to just under 93 percent.

The causes of this gap are complex and extend beyond the four walls of a classroom, often preceding students’ first steps through the schoolhouse doors, researchers say. Factors include poverty and unemployment, historic discrimination, segregated schools and neighborhoods, racial bias and low expectations that damage students’ motivation.

continued on next page

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, Wisconsin’s top education official since 2009, describes the state’s racial achievement gap as “extraordinarily horrible.”

Haley Henschel / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism


Fatoumata Ceesay, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who attended Madison East High School, attributes her academic success to two college readiness programs, one through school and another that offers after-school and summer programming.

Ceesay, a student of color, said in her experience, students of color were not challenged in school and operated under low academic expectations.

“Usually students of color are dissuaded from trying so hard and that really, if you’re not encouraging someone, you’re going to give up eventually, which is what happens,” said Ceesay, an aspiring photojournalist planning to major

in journalism and political science.

Like Ceesay, some students of color at Memorial also say they were not expected to excel. Lassey, for example, said he is one of three students of color in his Advanced Placement biology class and one of four in AP English. He is also taking French 4, the last class before AP French, and will be taking AP microeconomics next semester.

Lassey sought out those classes. But Memorial High School Principal Jay Affeldt said he and Memorial’s teachers now approach students instead of waiting for them to self-select into more rigorous classes to increase minority participation in AP classes.

A 2014 College Board report showed that 3 percent of black graduates in 2013 took an AP class during high school, compared to 85 percent of white students.

Mensah and Natasha Lassey, Odoi’s parents, experienced low expectations firsthand when they advocated for their two sons in situations where they felt counselors and teachers were pushing them out of more rigorous courses. The Lasseys’ oldest son is now 20 and attends Madison College, formerly known as Madison Area Technical College.

In one instance, in a conference with an honors course teacher, the couple said the teacher was focused on removing Odoi from the class instead of working to keep him in it.

“Here we are as parents, trying to help him, and all (the teacher) can focus on was trying to get him out of the class,” Natasha Lassey said.

Mensah Lassey acknowledged the importance of accepting responsibility as parents but worries for the students of families who cannot be actively involved in their children’s education.

“(It) boils down to economics,” he said.

Source: National Assessment for Educational Progress, the Nation’s Report Card. Possible test scores range 0 to 500. Numbers are rounded. Some data unavailable because state participation in tests was voluntary pre-2003. Credits: Reporting, Abigail Becker; charts, Kate Golden, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Fatoumata Ceesay is a Madison East High School graduate and a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She credits the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program with her academic success and college acceptance. In her experience, Ceesay said, students of color often face low expectations from teachers.

Abigail Becker / Wisconsin Center for Investigative JournalismMensah and Natasha Lassey, parents of Madison Memorial High School junior Odoi Lassey, say they have advocated for their two sons in situations where they felt counselors and teachers were pushing them out of more rigorous courses.



Wisconsin ‘worst’ for black childrenBlack students in Wisconsin are more likely to come to school hungry, abused or neglected — proven roadblocks to academic success. In fact, the 2014 Wisconsin Council on Children and Families report Race for Results labeled Wisconsin as the worst state for black children to live.

In a comparison of 46 states, Wisconsin’s black residents ranked as the worst in four of 12 indicators including delayed childbearing, young adults who are in school or working, children who live in two-parent households, and adults who have completed at least an associate’s degree, the report found.

As of 2014, 49 percent of Wisconsin’s black children were living in poverty, compared to 11 percent of white children, according to data compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count project.

Although Evers said no state is making strides in narrowing racial achievement gaps, Ohio did shrink the gap in fourth-grade reading, according to the 2015 Nation’s Report Card data cited by Peggy Carr, acting commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics. Carr added, however, there were no other signs of narrowing the gap elsewhere.

Wisconsin’s high suspension rate of black students is another barrier to their success in the classroom.

A report from the Civil Rights Project at the University of California-Los Angeles found that Wisconsin tops the nation in suspension rates, disciplining 34 percent of black high school students. The state has a 4 percent suspension rate for white students — the largest black-white discipline gap of all 50 states at the high school level, according to the report. Wisconsin’s suspension rate for black elementary students is the second-highest at 12 percent, the report found.

“If we ignore the discipline gap, we will be unable to close the achievement gap,” the report’s authors write.

Researchers and policymakers disagree about whether there have been successful efforts in Wisconsin to narrow the racial gap. While DPI has compiled dozens of examples of programs in Wisconsin that it says are working, UW-Madison education researcher Bradley Carl said he has yet to find any program “that has moved the needle on (the achievement gap)” in a big way.

University and state researchers will have the opportunity to find and analyze the practices across the state that are working to close the achievement gap with a $5.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant — the largest research collaboration yet between DPI and UW-Madison.

Gap large at ‘microcosm’ schoolDespite high achievers such as Kigeya and Lassey, a racial chasm in academic achievement persists at Madison Memorial High School. The school describes itself as a “microcosm” of Madison, drawing its students from neighborhoods ranging from subsidized apartments to upper-middle-class subdivisions. Just over half of its 1,917 students are white, 35 percent are low-income and nearly 20 percent are black.

In the 2013-14 school year, about 9 percent of Memorial’s black students tested proficient in math and 13 percent in reading, compared to 46 percent of white students in math and 51 percent in reading.

Affeldt said one problem is minority students often come into school believing they are not going to be successful because of racial stereotypes.

“It’s hard for me to hear students who feel that they can tell when they’re out in the community that it’s just sort of an assumption they’re not successful in school even though they are,” Affeldt said.

Kigeya and sophomore William Lemkuil agreed, and described feeling like they do not belong in their own predominantly white neighborhoods.

“Cars will drive past giving me weird looks like ‘Why are you here?’, like ‘How did you get here?’ ” Lemkuil said.


Bradley Carl, a University of Wisconsin-Madison education researcher, says there is little data on programs proven to narrow racial achievement gaps. He says that is one of the reasons for the state’s persistent racial disparities in school performance.

Abigail Becker / Wisconsin Center for Investigative JournalismJoseph W. Jackson III / Wisconsin Center for Investigative JournalismFrom left, Memorial High School students William Lemkuil, Demitrius Kigeya, Odoi Lassey and Robert Bennett say they face racial stereotypes at school.


William’s mom, Amy Lemkuil, is thinking ahead to when William is 16 and getting a driver’s license. She does not want William, whom they adopted as a baby, to drive the rusted old family car dubbed “Black Beauty” that his white older sisters drove because “I don’t want him to be stereotyped.”

Experts agree that any solutions to Wisconsin’s black-white achievement gap must include Milwaukee Public Schools, which house half of all black students in the state.

Milwaukee’s public schools are located in one of the most highly segregated cities in the country and reflect the racial disparities of a city with a child poverty rate of 42 percent — more than twice the state average, according to 2014 Kids Count data.

Half of all black students in Wisconsin attend Milwaukee Public Schools. In 2014-15, black students numbered 42,232, making up about 55 percent of the district’s student body.

In the 2013-14 school year, 10 percent of black students in Milwaukee were considered proficient in math and 8 percent in reading, compared to 35 percent of white students in math and 30 percent in reading.

Gaps all over stateBlack students in school districts from Madison to Kenosha and Green Bay to Racine also graduate at much lower rates than their white peers. The graduation rates of black students in some districts such as Beloit and Racine have improved in recent years. But Green Bay saw a big drop in the graduation rate of its black students, from about 57 percent in 2012-13 to 44 percent in 2013-14.

There are places where black students are not so far behind. In the Beloit School District, 85 percent of black students graduate from high school, compared to 90 percent of whites.

Tasha Bell, the district’s equity coordinator, said Beloit, which ranks 18th in size among Wisconsin school districts, has the diversity but not the size of a large urban district. It has 1,591 black students making up 22 percent of its 7,133-member student body.

Among the strategies Bell uses to encourage minority students to aim high is hosting a minority scholars reception each year for students of color who have at least a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average. Bell said the event helps minority students who do well in school see they are not alone.

“(It’s) a celebration of students of color working toward that achievement gap, defying the odds that we know exist in terms of the gaps and where they are,” Bell said.

There are other signs of positive movement in Wisconsin.

The statewide four-year graduation rate and the graduation rate among black students have both increased in recent years, although racial gaps are still striking. Across the state, the black student graduation rate rose from 61 percent in 2009-10 to 65 percent in the 2013-14 school year. White students’ graduation rate increased from 91 to 93 percent in that same time.

The five- and six-year graduation rates are also increasing across the board and for black students.

Chasm wide, persistent Over the past two decades, while the nationwide gap

between the races has narrowed, the disparity in Wisconsin has not, according to The Nation’s Report Card test results.

In 1996, the gap between the average math scores of black and white eighth-grade Wisconsin students was the largest among participating states at 48 points; the national gap at the time was 39 points.

Source: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Information System for Education Data Dashboard. Credits: Reporting, Abigail Becker; charts, Kate Golden, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Madison Memorial High School Principal Jay Affeldt, right, says stereotyping can hurt student performance. Affeldt graduated from Memorial in 1991, returned as a teacher in 1999 and is now in his second year as principal. Affeldt joined students Robert Bennett and Geresa Homesly in a roundtable discussion on race-based achievement gaps.

Joseph W. Jackson III / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism


Fast forward to 2015. According to the most recent Nation’s Report Card scores, Wisconsin blacks and whites were still separated by 48 points in math. Nationally, the gap for the same age and subject was 31 points.

It is not just that the state’s students on average perform so well. Wisconsin’s black students scored below the national average for black students in all four categories in 2015. For example, among fourth graders, Wisconsin’s black students scored 193 in reading compared to a national average among black students of 206.

Disparity sparks public debateWisconsin’s achievement gap is on the public’s radar. Last year, the activist group Justified Anger created a plan to address Madison’s disparities. Evers formed a statewide task force of educators and others to highlight schools that are closing the achievement gap. And a top Republican lawmaker has created the Speaker’s Task Force on Urban Education.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, formed the group in August to “provide tangible solutions to help improve educational outcomes” in schools serving high-poverty urban areas.

To date, the task force has toured schools in Madison, Racine, Kenosha and Green Bay and held meetings on mental health, behavior problems and truancy, and improving teacher recruitment and retention.

Most notably, since September 2014 the state has emphasized closing achievement gaps through Evers’ Promoting Excellence for All task force, which identified 39 promising strategies in schools across the state to raise the achievement of low-performing students.

The task force was the first time educators from schools that are closing gaps came together from around the state and discussed concrete solutions for making statewide improvement, said Demond Means, the Mequon-Thiensville School District superintendent who chaired the task force.

“When people talk about the achievement gap … there isn’t any substance in terms of what you can do to close it,” he said. “We were able to show support from research and then give strategies that people can implement immediately.”

In November, Means was appointed to lead a Milwaukee turnaround district mandated by the Legislature. He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he will work with district officials to close the achievement gap, which he calls the “civil rights movement of the 21st century.”

Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor in UW-Madison’s School of Education, echoed those sentiments at a panel Nov. 5 sponsored by Madison’s Simpson Street Free Press. She said calling it a “nagging achievement gap” does not do it justice.

“We’re in crisis,” Ladson-Billings said. “It is not nagging, it is persistent, it is structural. We’re at a point where we cannot go failing another generation of people.”

A ‘vicious cycle’Wisconsin’s “stagnant” gaps can largely be traced to the influence of economic disparities and trends, said Carl, the UW-Madison education researcher.

Up until the 1950s and ’60s, manufacturing-based cities

like Milwaukee had enough jobs to support a middle-class lifestyle for those with only a high school education, Carl said. As manufacturing jobs — the “backbone” of the city — began to disappear in about the 1970s due to factors such as increased foreign competition, outsourcing and greater automation, he said, Milwaukee and other “Rust Belt” cities saw a decline in population and a shift to an increasingly poor and non-white population.

Because of “white flight” to the suburbs, Carl said, housing values fell in the city, resulting in fewer resources for school districts, which relied largely on local property taxes.

“Cumulatively, the result of job losses, falling property values and rising crime rates for inner-city school districts has been a slow and steady process of decline, which has been very difficult to reverse,” Carl said.

“This becomes this vicious cycle that, by and large, we’re fully in the throes of.”

Racial academic disparities are often also rooted in greater social inequality issues, said Eric Grodsky, a UW-Madison associate professor in sociology and educational policy studies who researches disparities in higher education. Grodsky said Wisconsin’s black residents are, on average, worse off than in other states with a similar racial makeup, and the state lacks an “established” black middle class.

The Race to Equity report, released in 2013 by the nonprofit Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, affirms Grodsky’s analysis. Compared to non-Hispanic whites, blacks in Wisconsin were nearly four times as likely to be unemployed and four times as likely to be living in


Eric Grodsky is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on inequality in higher education. Grodsky is leading a $5.2 million effort to study which strategies may help close the huge gap between how well black and white students perform in Wisconsin schools.



poverty, earning about half as much in median household income as whites.

Said Grodsky: “If you change the class structure of society, yes, you would make a big dent in the disparities, but that is not going to happen.”

Few proven remedies to narrow gapCarl said there are not enough large-scale evaluations showing which programs are successful in closing the achievement gap.

He could only point to one set of programs that he said has been proven successful: the in-school Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) class and the related Teens of Promise (TOPS) programs that Madison East’s Ceesay credited with helping her get into UW-Madison.

TOPS is an after-school and summer program that works with AVID to prepare the “academic middle” for college through summer internships, tutoring and mentorships and college visits. The programs are an effort of the Madison School District and the Dane County Boys & Girls clubs.

Carl said the fact that there are so few programs in Wisconsin backed up by sufficient research “is pretty indicative of the problem.”

But the newly announced $5.2 million federal grant may change that. Over the next four years, education researchers from DPI and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research will analyze data from all public schools to identify practices across the state that are working to close the achievement gap.

After the research center identifies schools where racial and economic achievement gaps are narrowing, Grodsky will lead a university research team to conduct on-site interviews with school officials to identify effective practices that other districts can replicate.

Grodsky said the work will build on Evers’ Promoting Excellence for All task force by figuring out “the extent to which those ideas will have traction in the broader state.”

Langston Evans, who runs Madison TOPS, said it will take more than schools. Nonprofit organizations and local businesses also must exercise a “collective will” to help students.

“If we aren’t coordinating and collaborating the services that bridge those together, then everybody is going to feel like the other person is to blame,” Evans said.

Collaboration involves parents and families, too.

Amy Lemkuil is as involved in her son William’s education as she was with her two older daughters, who are now in college. Lemkuil acknowledges that with her resources and flexible job, she can spend time at school, pay a tutor and work around William’s school and sports schedule.

“There just is socioeconomic privilege,” Lemkuil said.

Where these resources are lacking, community members such as Pat Wongkit step in. Wongkit is the program

coordinator at Northport Community Learning Center, located within a low-income apartment complex on Madison’s north side.

She acknowledges some parents are working multiple jobs, caring for children at home and enduring numerous stresses. But they “can’t just hand over the kids too and have us do all the work,” Wongkit said.

She encourages parents to check students’ backpacks for homework, keep track of school events and send their children to learning center programs.

“We count on the parents to help us, making sure the kids are here,” Wongkit said. “We need parents, we need a community and we need the schools, so all of us need to be in sync.”

A reason to come to schoolStudent leaders also can play a part. Some of Memorial’s Black Student Union members, including Kigeya and Lassey, said they are working to change how others perceive minority students at school and in the greater Madison community.

JoAnne Brown, Memorial’s multicultural student coordinator, said BSU members are leaders “shining lights onto other African-Americans, showing that they can do this too.”

Danaejuh Sheppard, a senior, said she and other BSU members are creating a peer-to-peer program to partner younger students with older student mentors. She plans to attend college to be a pediatrician, paramedic or a nurse practitioner.

Brown said there is a gap at Memorial between black students like Sheppard and other BSU members who are succeeding and another set of black students who are not. BSU students at a recent roundtable discussion on the achievement gap at Memorial said a variety of factors may be at play: feeling disconnected from teachers, lack of

Madison Memorial High School sophomore William Lemkuil looks at a wall of family photos with his mother, Amy, in the basement of their home in Verona. Amy says she worries about the negative stereotypes that William faces as a black student in Wisconsin.



encouragement at home and different learning styles that they say teachers are not accommodating.

“Our African-American students aren’t really connecting to (teachers),” Sheppard agreed. “They just think teachers don’t understand where they’re coming from and their history.

“Other people can help, they can tell you go to go class, they can tell you to do certain things, but it’s also up to you to think, ‘Oh maybe I do need to do this, actually go to class,’” she added. “But you can’t really have someone force you to do something you don’t want to do.”

Students also need a plan, Lassey said, whether or not that includes college. Lassey is taking a law and ethics course and says he wants to get a law degree like his father and maybe practice corporate law. Kigeya aims to play soccer in college and may pursue a career in physical therapy.

“I think the reason people succeed is because they have a goal in mind … that’s what makes people want to work hard is knowing they have a plan after high school,” Lassey said.

Robert Bennett, a junior who wants to pursue college basketball and veterinary science in college, agreed. He said racial stereotypes will never go away — a belief expressed by almost all the students at the roundtable in August. But he said self-motivation might help diminish them.

“Instead of having a reason to leave, having a reason to come here and do what they have to do, and then after awhile stereotypes will start going down,” Bennett said. “(Stereotypes will) still be there, but if the majority of people that are black start doing what the normal is — going to school, doing everything you have to do — then stereotypes will slowly start to go away.”

The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

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Critics say Wisconsin going backward on achievement gapThis year, the Legislature scrapped one program that fostered integration and changed another popular program that lowered class sizesBy Abigail BeckerWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

In the past year, the Republican-run state Legislature, with the blessing of Gov. Scott Walker, eliminated the state’s race-based integration program, known as Chapter 220, and made changes to a class-size reduction program,

Student Achievement Guarantee in Education, in moves that critics charge will harm the state’s ability to close the achievement gap.


From left to right and back to front, Robert Bennett, Demitrius Kigeya, Odoi Lassey and William Lemkuil walk down the halls of Madison Memorial High School. Even though these four students are high-achieving, participate in sports and are active members of the school’s Black Student Union, they still face negative stereotypes as black students in Madison.

Abigail Becker / Wisconsin Center for Investigative JournalismSophomores William Lemkuil, center, and Demitrius Kigeya, right, listen to Danaejuh Sheppard during a roundtable discussion with other students from Madison Memorial High School’s Black Student Union in August. Sheppard, a senior, discusses a proposed mentoring program at the high school that would partner younger students with older students.

Joseph W. Jackson III / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism


Chapter 220 pays for the transportation and education of students who transfer to another school under the voluntary program. Researchers disagree about whether integration can raise achievement among students of color. Some studies show a positive effect, others find it inconclusive, and still others say integration is not a solution.

University of Wisconsin-Madison education researcher Eric Grodsky said “we’ve been down this road” of integration. While noting beneficial characteristics of a diverse school, “just putting a kid in a school with some more advantaged students isn’t going to solve all the kid’s problems,” he said.

SAGE funds schools with low-income students in kindergarten through third grades to keep class sizes small. During its 20 years, it has been shown to raise achievement and graduation rates, especially among black students.

The Legislature replaced SAGE with a new program, giving schools more options to fulfill the grant requirements beyond just lowering class sizes. The state Department of Public Instruction charged that will “dilute” the positive impact of the program.

Senate Education Committee chairman Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, said he favored the changes recommended by the Joint Legislative Council because some schools whose efforts did not meet the SAGE requirements would have been dropped from the program. By adding more options, he said, these schools can continue to qualify for funding.

The new program, called Achievement Gap Reduction, allows schools to use the funding to provide instructional coaching for teachers and one-on-one tutoring for students in addition to or instead of reducing class sizes.

Olsen cited a 2007 Wisconsin Center for Education Research report, which estimated that giving teachers coaching on how to improve their teaching works better and is more cost-effective than smaller class sizes. It concluded that “improving teacher effectiveness through high-quality professional development is arguably as important as all of the other resource strategies identified” — including small class size.

Said Olsen, “These strategies give us more bang for our buck than just class sizes.”

Only schools that previously received SAGE funding are eligible to apply under the new program because there is no new money to fund them, he added.

The 2015-17 budget appropriates $109.2 million a year for the program, the same amount that has been allocated for the past several years, according to DPI. Schools are guaranteed $2,027 per eligible student under the bill.

Researchers at the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin Center for Education Research have evaluated SAGE’s effectiveness 10 times over 20 years.

The center’s 2015 report concluded that the SAGE program had a positive effect on math and reading for students in kindergarten through third grade. Long term, they found that students in SAGE schools were less likely to drop out in the ninth and 10th grade, especially black and poor students, and more likely to graduate.

Olsen said he believes adding more strategies will help the program become even more successful.

“I believe we improved SAGE from what it was,” Olsen said. “I don’t know how much

more, but we didn’t make it worse … that’s all you can do.”

Integration program on way outThe state’s 2015-17 budget phases out Chapter 220 and redistributes its roughly $60 million in funding. The eventual elimination of the voluntary integration program impacts Milwaukee and its suburban districts as well as schools in Madison, Racine and Wausau.

In 2014-15, the state awarded about $30 million to the Milwaukee district for transfers within the district, $9 million to Racine, $500,000 to Madison and $238,000 to Wausau. For transfers between districts, the state allocated about $2 million to Milwaukee and $18 million to 22 suburban districts.

The Chapter 220 phaseout allows students currently enrolled in the program to continue through high school graduation. Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said ending the program allows more state money to flow to schools across Wisconsin.

Proponents of phasing out Chapter 220 cite the declining participation and say students can take advantage of the state’s open enrollment program, which allows children to attend public school in a district other than the one in which they live.

However, that program is not race-based and does not provide funding for transportation, making participation by many of Milwaukee’s poor students much more difficult and not an “equal substitute,” said Demond Means, superintendent of the Mequon-Thiensville School District.

“Striking down access to these schools, I believe, is a step backward for inclusive practices in our state,” Means said.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers noted the importance of the Chapter 220 program but said the number of eligible schools is declining, diminishing the program’s original effect. He cited Brown Deer as an example, which he said is a district typically thought of as an “almost all-white suburban district” when in fact it has more black students than white.

“That’s happening all around, so even if the Legislature hadn’t gotten rid of the 220 program this last go-around, it was steadily shrinking to a point where it really wasn’t having an immediate effect that it originally had,” Evers said

The Racine School District plans to eliminate policies

Luther Olsen

Senate Chief Clerk


designed to integrate schools by giving preference to minority and students with special needs who seek to attend one of the district’s “choice” schools. Spokeswoman Stacy Tapp told the Racine Journal Times the district is committed to diversity, but because of federal court decisions in recent years, the current policies are now likely “illegal and unenforceable.”

While researchers are mixed on whether integration solves racial gaps, New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones

said in a National Public Radio episode of This American Life that after years of reporting on education, she believes integration is the only solution to racial achievement gaps and that no one is talking about it.

“What integration does is it gets black kids in the same facilities as white kids,” Hannah-Jones told the NPR host. “And therefore, it gets them access to the same things that those kids get — quality teachers and quality instruction.”

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Local solutions integral to closing gaps, top education official saysWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reporter Abigail Becker sat down in October with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, Department of Public Instruction spokesman Tom McCarthy and the agency’s Director of Education Information Services John Johnson.

How would you characterize the achievement gap in the state of Wisconsin?

Tony Evers: It’s extraordinarily horrible. There’s no other way to describe it. When a white kid from an impoverished family can likely achieve at a higher level than a black kid from an affluent family, there’s something wrong with the system, absolutely.

There’s all sorts of things that have been tried. Frankly, in recent years mostly governance-type things, and that’s where I have a real level of frustration. We spend all our time talking about which is better: regular public schools, voucher schools, charter schools, and you can look at the data for the most part, it doesn’t make any difference. And we’re spending all sorts of time and money focusing on that. That’s why I did this Promoting Excellence for All task force to kind of set that aside for at least a bit and talk about what’s going on in the classroom. And I thought they came up with some great recommendations. It’s not going to change overnight, and I think some of the things they propose will make a difference. But it’s going to be tough sledding. Wisconsin has a history of not being able to solve this issue and, frankly, not being able to lift people of color out of poverty in any significant way.

I’ve been around long enough that I saw the change where, especially in the African-American community in Milwaukee, the heavy manufacturing was king. People could get good family-supporting jobs for their entire life and those jobs, many of those were held by African-Americans in the Milwaukee area and in other urban areas. They disappeared virtually overnight. I know it wasn’t … here today and gone tomorrow, but they (jobs) have never recovered. They’ve replaced family-supporting jobs with no jobs or lowest-wage jobs possible, so that’s part of the ethos that we’re facing.

… Can we do more in our schools? Yes, and we should do more but the fact of the matter is we need the entire state to

kind of rally around people of poverty or this will never be solved in a satisfactory way.

What is your opinion on recent policy changes to Chapter 220 and SAGE?

Evers: And those are important programs. Frankly, the 220 program was going to run out of schools sooner or later anyway because once the suburban schools reach a certain level of minority population … they would no longer be part of the program anyway.

I’ll use Brown Deer as an example. It is usually considered, in the past, an almost all-white suburban school district, pretty high-achieving, and now they’re almost 50-50. In fact, I think they’re a minority-white majority school. And that’s happening all around, so even if the Legislature hadn’t gotten rid of the 220 program this last go-around, it was steadily shrinking to a point where it really wasn’t having an immediate effect that it originally had.

SAGE is a different story. I think for the most part the literature supports smaller class sizes, especially with kids that come from difficult backgrounds and don’t have the rich experience that middle class kids have. But the fact of the matter is in Milwaukee, the class sizes still continue to have inched up, and I would say in many cases they’re well beyond what they should be for the SAGE program.

If you even look at their 3-year-old kindergarten where it’s not covered by SAGE, 40, 50 kids in the classroom, and those are the most complex kids that we really need to reach earlier. So there’s some, really some significant things working against Milwaukee and in all urban districts.

I would say, in turn, I am relatively pleased with the work of the school district in the last couple of years. They have an outstanding superintendent (Darienne Driver). She’s focusing on the right things. She’s not promising to change things overnight and focusing on teaching and learning and the kind of stuff that are important to succeed in Milwaukee.

So I think we’re headed in the right direction, but it is at a snail’s pace at best and that’s just not satisfactory.

What are some of the other causes you would say that are driving this achievement gap?



Evers: Let me back up and say what we need to do to change it. Because I think a lot of it was economics to begin with. But the other fact of the matter is, in Wisconsin, most educators look like me and come from small towns. The first time I had an interaction with someone of color was when I worked at a canning factory in high school and a couple of Hispanic guys were working next to me. And it’s just extraordinarily difficult for people that don’t have a rich, diverse background of experience to, I mean, I couldn’t walk into Milwaukee South High School and be an adequate teacher, I can tell you that. And I think a really good teacher in Pewaukee, say, wouldn’t necessarily be a top-notch teacher at South Milwaukee Division High

School. There’s just some experiences that come from life or come from having exposure to more diverse cultures that really puts us at a disadvantage. I don’t know the percentage of African-American teachers in Milwaukee, but it’s very small percentage. I’m not saying white teachers can’t be successful, but they will have a more difficult time because of their background.

(The Promoting Excellence for All) strategies came down on the issue of making sure all teachers, no matter what their color or background, are culturally competent and understand diverse communities, (and) are willing to feel comfort in situations where they may be the only person of a different color in a setting like a classroom. That takes extraordinary planning and preparation and changing our norms.

The problem is, if we rely on us attracting more African-Americans or any people of color to the profession, I’ll be six

feet under by the time that happens. It’s just, it’s not going to happen soon. Many kids of color have not had a great experience … in their schooling, and maybe the last thing they want to be is a teacher, frankly. And also — and this is a small issue, but it’s one I will continually harp on even for those students that do well in the Milwaukee area — for kids of color, a lot of times they leave the state and never come back. And I think we’re losing a significant resource.

It’s a K-through-20 issue. It’s an economic issue. But I also think we can do some things now. I think helping our teachers have good class sizes, make sure that they are culturally competent, is of huge importance. Another one that I’m hopefully going to work on with people this year ... is there’s a real low-hanging fruit in Milwaukee — it could be in other urban areas of Wisconsin — the number of children that go to summer school is paltry … I think having a concerted effort at summer school will help help. We have this slide that happens every summer and we can help prevent that in a real easy way, we just have to get people in Milwaukee County energized around this. Hopefully, I’m going to be working on that and getting it going. And it’s also, as I talk to people in Milwaukee, not only is it preparing kids more academically, but we have a lot of kids getting killed here in the summer in Milwaukee. It’s an issue of safety too … If we keep them involved in school for a more lengthy period of time during the day, during the summer, we keep them safer, slow down the slide and make some progress. So that’s another thing we’re working on.

It is extraordinarily difficult when the economics of the neighborhoods are so difficult.

From the data, it looks like Wisconsin can’t educate its black students. Why is this not changing, and why can’t we as a state improve?

Evers: The fact of the matter is in some of the more recent testing we made some gains in the Hispanic community that have not been realized in the African-American community. And I think it’s more of an issue of the longevity of the economic distress that they’ve been under. And you know, they were slaves 150 years ago, and the economic reality of their lives has not changed whereas other kids of color, families of color are more recent to Wisconsin. You can use the Hmong as an example. There’s still a gap, but they score above African-Americans. And I believe I think it’s a length of time they’ve been under such extraordinarily difficult economic circumstances. There’s a huge difference in time.

We’ve had … at one point in time if you’re a second grader, African-American, in Milwaukee, you’re likely to be moving into four different schools over a year. And that’s a recipe for disaster. And some of that is the, frankly, the neighborhood school concept really doesn’t exist in Milwaukee anymore. They went to more of an interspaced specialty schools where kids are traveling all over the city. There’s high mobility, and then you have issues of poverty, you’re living with Mom for partial time or maybe Grandma or Dad, and you’re moving all the time. One of our goals, and we’ve reached it for the most part, is to work with MPS to standardize curriculum in every school so that even if

Department of Public Instruction spokesman Tom McCarthy, right, and John Johnson, left, the agency’s director of education information services, note in a meeting with Tony Evers and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reporters that five- and six-year graduation rates in Wisconsin have improved in recent years, although a racial gap remains.


you are moving you aren’t changing, starting over from scratch.

The other thing … is there is a movement in Milwaukee around the issue of community schools, and I think that has some innate merit to it. I don’t think there is a lot of good research around it, but there is common sense around it where they have all the wraparound services right there in the school, whether it’s dental or mental health, whether it’s social services, it’s all within a school and the schools actually have outreach workers that work in the community to kind of bring the people together. But the weird thing about that is you’re always going to have a hard time getting off the ground in Milwaukee because they really don’t have that many neighborhood schools anymore, so kind of rallying the parents, the community members around nurturing young kids in their neighborhood, is going to be much more difficult when those kids go 10 miles that way to school or 20 miles that way to school.

I remember I was … interviewing … a young woman from South Division High School. She was an African-American. In order for her to access all the services she needed at South Division, she had to get up at like 4 in the morning and made sure she got on the bus in time. She played sports, so she did that after school. So her day was like 4 in the morning until 10 at night and then start all over again. And that isn’t walking across the street to go home … so here’s someone who had extraordinary willingness and enthusiasm to go the extra mile and get the extra tutoring she needed, but in order to do that there was a 20-hour day, 15-hour day. It just takes so much for the individuals to do it. So kind of localizing those services a little better might be helpful. But it’s going to take more than just the school district to make this happen.

Do solutions to the achievement gap need to be broader than schools?

Evers: Absolutely. And Milwaukee has a good philanthropy community, and the other urban areas too, that really help the schools out, but it’s really hard to coordinate all those different interest groups. We’ve for years attempted, with some success, to get the early-childhood philanthropy group to act as somewhat unified, even though they’re different pots of money and that’s worked out, but it’s been very difficult other than that. The one thing I’d like that Dr. Driver has done is she’s focused on the high schools. Clearly high school in Milwaukee and our urban areas are really difficult, but I think it’s an area where there’s some unanimity in the Milwaukee community, especially about how high schools can be changed in a more positive direction — more technical career education, frankly, more music, art and (physical education), all the things we recognize when we went to school were all important that have been kind of left out of a lot of schooling at the high school level. And the other good thing about her focus there is that it won’t devolve into that argument about which types of schools are better, vouchers or charters, because MPS kind of owns that world because very few vouchers go to high school kids and very few, percentage, wise, go to an independent charter, so we can just kind of set that governing aside and focus on making high schools a more productive environment for kids.

In turn, I will say they’ve increased their graduation rates over time, and it hasn’t been to historic heights, but they’re approaching 70 percent.

John Johnson: Statewide, we have too.

Evers: We keep moving that up. Statewide, African-Americans, all kids of color, we’re moving that up. But it’s slow going.

Johnson: If you go back 20 years, MPS was graduating at like 40 percent black kids.

Tom McCarthy: The other thing they’re doing a good job of is the five- and six-year (graduation rate). They’re focusing on the fact that just because they didn’t get them at 18 as a traditional graduate, there’s still an opportunity for them to do a job and finish the work.

Johnson: I’ll give a pitch for the five- and six-year graduation rate is important. And not all reporters cover it I think as much as they should. A, our constitution in Wisconsin says you have a right to a public education until you’re 20 years old; and B, especially in districts with high percentage of kids with special needs, with an IEP (individualized education plan), they can go to school until they’re 21. And so Milwaukee is certainly a place with 23 percent of their students having IEPs that you really should look at the five- and six-year graduation rates.

Do you think real effort on the achievement gap can be made through local solutions rather than political ones?

Evers: Yes. Absolutely yes. Especially in this day and age, if the solutions are coming from Madison, they’re going to suck. And having them being done locally is far preferable.

And a small example: Every teacher in the state will have some professional development obligations that we’re going to make it extraordinarily easy to have


Department of Public Instruction spokesman Tom McCarthy, right, and John Johnson, left, the agency’s director of education information services, note in a meeting with Tony Evers and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reporters that five- and six-year graduation rates in Wisconsin have improved in recent years, although a racial gap remains.

Haley Henschel / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism


them access the professional development stuff in the Promoting Excellence for All website and so A, they’re going to have some licensing requirements, professional development requirements. They can feed right into that stuff. Additionally, as you know in the state, … we are not in a world where the evaluation of educators is somewhat consistent across the state in expectations and teachers need to put together plans that are reflective of their evaluations. Again, they can use this information, so it’s going to be set up perfectly for that.

But to answer your question, absolutely. And I guess I was too harsh on Madison. Our goal is to get the local community involved with this. There is not going to be a program that is going to save this that is going to come from Madison.

McCarthy: I think that concept applies to more than just schools. It applies to anything you do. If you can get someone’s buy-in and their best practices, and they think it’s a good idea, they’re more likely to be successful in completing it than just telling someone you have to just go and check this box. They’re going to be lackadaisical about how they’re going to check that box, whereas if you tell them, “this is something you’re going to see the fruit of and here’s why,” and they’re bought in.

Evers: A small example of using Madison as a place where maybe we shouldn’t be expecting a lot from, except for the Department (of Public Instruction), in the last budget they passed that piece of legislation that can carve out a piece of Milwaukee Public Schools that are underperforming, and then the County Executive (Chris Abele) is somehow going to be taking over and somehow that magic governance change is going to make African-Americans achieve at some higher levels. That’s just baloney. There’s no data to support that.

Do you look to other states with positive examples of closing race-based achievement gaps?

Evers: No. There are none. I would say Florida has done some interesting things in closing the gap, but they started from a different place … I think they’ve done a good job with African-American kids, but they’ve also invested a hell of a lot of money in schooling and making sure their systems accommodate the difficulties that those kids have. I’d say (the gap) hasn’t changed at all.

Johnson: (The progress in closing the achievement gap is) sort of flattening out.

So no other states are making improvement?

Evers: In my opinion, no. I occasionally get together with those folks that are colleagues of mine, and I haven’t seen a particular state that has done differently. There’s other states that don’t have much of an achievement gap, but they don’t have many kids of color.

So in that case, Wisconsin is not unique in these stubborn trends.

Evers: No.

Johnson: You look nationally and every state has achievement gaps. Nobody has solved or has eliminated achievement gaps between (majority and minority students), especially African-American students.

Evers: And if you look at some of the states that have high percentage comparatively (of) American Indian kids that many live in just destitute ... I was actually with President (Barack) Obama about a year ago now with a small group of people, and he was speaking passionately about the reservations he’s visited across this country. He said, “I’ve seen poverty in my world, but I’ve never seen anything like that.” You look at some of those states that have high percentages of Indian kids but also their achievement gaps are extraordinarily large, too.

It just has to begin with their ability to have a home life that gives them a great start.

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How to investigate achievement gaps in your local schools The first step is to gather the data. This is a key tool in understanding how well students, schools, districts and policies are working.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction provides an online database called WISEdash, the “front door” to discovering information about your school and district, from test scores to enrollment information and graduation rates.

Otherwise known as the Wisconsin Information System for Education Data Dashboard, the database uses filtering functions to break down information by gender, race and ethnicity, economic status, and English Language Learner and migrant status. All data can be downloaded to Microsoft Excel and PDF files for further analysis.

Once you know the facts about your school and district, take the time to compare the information to similar districts across the state. For more information, see DPI’s helpful guides and frequently asked questions about navigating WISEdash.

Then, talk to those in your school and district community about achievement gaps. Finding out how students, teachers, principals and district officials view achievement gaps will shed light on existing problems and inform future solutions.

— Abigail Becker


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