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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Tag: Racial disparity

Child Poverty in the US

UNH study: Child poverty racial disparities persist, April 18, 2107, Foster’s Daily Democrat: “A University of New Hampshire study has found that child poverty continues to decline, but racial-ethnic disparities persist.  Between 2014 and 2015 child poverty fell for all race-ethnicities except Asians, but patterns in levels and characteristics of child poverty persist, according to researchers at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire…”

Racial Achievement Gap

  • New research uncovers little improvement in achievement gap, By Sarah Sparks, May 9, 2016, PBS NewsHour: “Fifteen years of new programs, testing, standards, and accountability have not ended racial achievement gaps in the United States. The Stanford Education Data Archive, a massive new database that allows researchers to compare school districts across state lines has led to the unwelcome finding that racial achievement gaps yawn in nearly every district in the country— and the districts with the most resources in place to serve all students frequently have the worst inequities…”
  • Seattle schools have biggest white-black achievement gap in state, By Gene Balk, May 9, 2016, Seattle Times: “White kids in Seattle’s public schools are doing great. They’re performing about two grade levels above the national average on standardized exams. That finding comes from a sweeping new Stanford studyof 2009-2012 test scores from third- through eighth-grade students around the country. But for black kids in Seattle, the data from that study paint a very different picture. They test one and a half grade levels below the U.S. average. Compared with their white peers in the city, black students lag by three and a half grade levels. That ranks Seattle, among the 200 biggest school districts in the U.S., as having the fifth-biggest gap in achievement between black and white students…”

African American Child Poverty – Wisconsin

  • Wisconsin’s black children remain trapped in poverty, study says, By Guy Boulton, September 10, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “African-American children still face dismal odds in Wisconsin. The state ranks last in the country in the overall well-being of African-American children based on an index of 12 measures that gauge a child’s success from birth to adulthood, according to a new report being released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families. The measures, while not new, are bleak: Four out of every five African-American children in Wisconsin live in poor households, compared with roughly two out of three Latino children and three out of 10 white children…”
  • Damning disparities: Wisconsin is a great place for kids to grow up — unless they’re black, By Steven Elbow, September 10, 2014, Capital Times: “Last year’s ‘Race to Equity’ report set off an impassioned discussion about the vast disparities in the quality of life for African-Americans and whites. But that discussion was restricted to Dane County. Now the authors have issued a new report that they hope will take the discussion to the rest of Wisconsin. The report, drawing on data from across the country, shows that the state is dead last in providing for the well-being of its African-American kids…”