Race for Results Report Out - WI Shows Wide Gap

The Wisconsin Education Association Council's  (WEAC) website just published an article Oct 25: "Wisconsin has nation's widest gap in well-being between white and African American children, report says". The article highlights information about the findings in the Race for Results: Building a Path for Opportunity for All Children report which examines statistics in all 50 states by the Casey Foundation including:

• In Wisconsin, just 64% of African American students graduate high school on time, compared to 93% of white non-Hispanic students. Only 78% of Hispanic and American Indian students graduate on time.
• 72% of white children in Wisconsin live in families that are economically secure compared to just 24% of African American children, 30% of Latino children, 31% of Hmong children, and 36% of American Indian children.
• Wisconsin children in immigrant families are one third less likely to live in families who are economically secure (double the poverty level) than children in US-born families.
• The 4th grade reading proficiency rate of Wisconsin children in US-born families is dramatically low, only 39%. That compares to an appallingly low rate of 9% of Wisconsin children in immigrant families.

To download the full report, click here

Data on Kids in WI

Kris Adams Wendt, Public Library Consultant for Wisconsin Valley Library Service shares some great info with state youth consultants and we share it with YOU. Kris writes:

I ran across Wisconsin Council on Children and Families changes name to Kids Forward during my morning media scan and wondered how many around the YSANDSN table were aware of this organization and the work they do.

When you have a minute, I encourage you to poke around the Kids Forward website, paying particular attention to the WisKids Count page. 

WisKids Count tracks, analyzes, synthesizes, and communicates data about the health and well-being of children and families in Wisconsin. WisKids Count is a part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count project which seeks to enrich local, state and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.


The Kids Count Data Center provides access to a wide range on data on indicators of child well-being in Wisconsin. Using the tools in the Data Center, you can easily create a profile of your county or school district. For more information on how to use the Kids Count Data Center, see our instructional presentation.

White House Petition on School Libraries - Rest of the Story

In February, we sent out a plea from Allison Kaplan for library folks to support and sign a White House Petition for school libraries. 25,000 signatures were needed to trigger a White House response.  Over 28K were received.  Carl Harvey, YALSA president and the initiator of the petition reported out the results on April 13 in this blog post. 

It's good to know that we have support from the POTUS on school librarians. But of course the devil is in the details - and the details remain in solidifying funding and real-world commitment for our school librarian colleagues.

White House Petition - President's Council on the Whole Child

A message to Wisconsin colleagues from Allison Kaplan, Faculty Associate at UW-Madison SLIS:

Dear Colleagues,

In view of Governor Walker's educational reform bill that requires reading testing in kindergarten, I am forwarding a message from Education Advocates that requests signing a petition to President Obama that reads (in part):

The true measure of student success is more than just a test score and such success requires support well beyond effective instruction. The demands of the 21st century require a new approach to education to fully prepare our nation’s youth for college, career, and citizenship. A whole child approach to education enhances learning by addressing each student’s social, emotional, physical, and academic needs through the shared contributions of schools, families, communities, and policymakers.

25,000 signatures are needed for the petition to go to the President's office. You do not need to be a teacher to sign the petition, only a concerned citizen. The message is below, thank you in advance to taking the time to read the petition and to help stop this testing madness. Allison

More Testing & More Sanctions Are Not the Answer

We need your help. Congress is on the verge of making the same mistakes they made with NCLB: a narrow focus on reading and math at the expense of other subjects, relying on standardized state test scores as the measure of a student's abilities, and paying lip service to the importance of classroom teachers while providing them little support.

What we need—and what Washington needs to grasp—is a new vision for education that meets the comprehensive needs of students. In other words, a whole child education.

You already know the success that can be achieved when each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Unfortunately, after more than a decade of NCLB, the politicians still don't get it. More testing, more sanctions, and more blame are simply not the answers.

We need to tell the Beltway crowd about what's working in schools and how they can best help you. Add your name to the petition asking the White House to create a President's Council on the Whole Child.

It's a small step, but it's a start. A President's Council will give our leaders the advice they need from actual practitioners about what matters most. Imagine, politicians relying on the input of experts! Without your support, things won't change. 

Every voice, like every child, counts so please forward this message to your friends and colleagues.