English Learners in Wisconsin lag behind their English-proficient peers on a number of academic achievement measures, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The report finds that only 16.6 percent of English Learners in third grade scored at the proficient or advanced level in reading for 2017-18, compared to more than 42 percent of English-proficient students. Only 4.3 percent of English Learners scored at that level in eighth-grade math, compared with 36.6 percent of all students statewide.
- RELATED: Our Nation’s English Learners
Despite the achievement gap, however, the four-year high school graduation rate for English Learners in Wisconsin is improving. Seventy percent of English Learners graduated within four years in 2017-18, the highest rate in at least a decade.
