Voucher students post gain in math, reading; still lag public schools

This is curious:

A growing number of taxpayer-funded private schools posted little to no data at all — either because parents chose or were encouraged to opt their children out of taking the state tests.

In the state’s three voucher programs, 368 students did not take the exams because of parent opt outs: that’s 2.7% of the 13,601 students in tested grades at voucher schools.

Four private schools saw 100% of their taxpayer-funded voucher students opt out of the tests: Hillel Academy in Milwaukee, Sheboygan Area Lutheran and Sheboygan Christian, and St. Joseph Catholic School in Kenosha.

At Pius XI High School in Milwaukee, 102 of 107 voucher students opted out of the exams.

All but one of the 38 voucher students in 10th grade at St. Thomas More High School did the same. Ditto for almost half of the 90 voucher elementary students at Tamarack Waldorf School in Milwaukee.

Only about 0.1% of public school students opted out of the exams, or 578 students statewide out of 432,594 students in tested grades. Public schools get marked down on their state report cards if less than 95% of students take the exams.

The number of opt outs should not be growing if we are to reach some kind of parity.