For businesses looking to get more involved in the world of education, it can be a challenge to understand the ins and outs of the education ecosystem in Milwaukee or other parts of the region. To ease the entry, here’s a quick glimpse at trends in enrollment and school performance in Milwaukee:

Where do Milwaukee students attend school? Source: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction data

There are generally three types of publicly funded schools that Milwaukee students attend. Most still attend a traditional school in the Milwaukee Public Schools district. In 2022-‘23, these students accounted for around 52% of more than 110,000 students.

The second largest group is around 26% of students who attend private schools through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Both in percentage and absolute terms, this group has been growing over the past decade. Students receive publicly funded tuition vouchers to attend schools governed by an independent entity that can be secular or faith based. Since the schools are not public, they are not bound to the same state and federal laws as MPS or other districts. Supporters argue this freedom allows for more tailored education for students.

The third largest group is charter schools. These are public schools governed by an independent board and operated under a charter contract with an authorizing entity, which could be MPS, the city of Milwaukee or the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Charters can be exempted from some of the laws governing MPS, providing more freedom for different approaches to education.

Finally, around 5% of students transfer out of MPS to other public school districts in the surrounding area.

How are Milwaukee schools performing?

In business, it is common to hear that what gets measured gets managed. There is no shortage of data in education, from enrollment figures to test scores to graduation rates and much more. But boiling all of that info down into a single metric of how a school or district is performing isn’t necessarily as easy at it may seem. Consider a very basic example: One teacher has a class with many high-performing students and on their annual exams, the students again get high marks. Another teacher has more students who just scraped by the prior year with below-average scores. Over the course of the year, she manages to help them reach a point where their scores are average. Who did a better job? The teacher who showed growth? Or the one with high achievement?

At a school or district level, this comparison only gets more complex with more students and more teachers. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction attempts to quantify all of this data with its annual report cards that rate schools and districts on a range from failing to meeting expectations to significantly exceeding expectations. One metric that education advocates in the region have sought to improve is the number of high-quality seats available in Milwaukee, where high-quality means a school exceeds or significantly exceeds expectations.

How are Milwaukee students performing?

The report cards provide an easy, high-level look at schools and districts but critics contend that, especially in Milwaukee, the report cards rely too much on growth and not enough on achievement. City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee organization that provides policy and analysis with a focus on ensuring all students have an opportunity to attend a high-quality school, points to student performance on annual exams as evidence the report cards provide a distorted picture.

Regardless of educational sector – public, charter or choice – the percentage of Milwaukee students rated proficient or advanced on English and math tests is far lower than compared to the rest of the state. Here’s a look at the data, which CFC notes remains below pre-pandemic levels:

% of students rated proficient or advanced on annual statewide exams.

Sector	English Advertisement	Math
MPS	15.9%	9.9%
Public Charter Advertisement	19.2%	15.6%
MPCP (Choice)	20.2%	15.5% Advertisement
City Average	17.4%	12.2%
State Average	39.5% Advertisement	37.9%