The Sconi

The nation's latest federal government assessment of students, the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, reveals bad news for Wisconsinites.

"The federal government report finds: Wisconsin is the worst state in the nation for gaps between black and white students; Sagging reading and math scores," Jason Calvi, a reporter for Fox 6 News in Milwaukee, said on Twitter.

Some blame the widening gap on Gov. Tony Evers' school closures in 2020.

Wisconsin fourth and eighth graders outpaced every other state in the gaps between white and black students for reading and math test scores, MSN reported.

One of the key statistics from the report showed that within fourth-grade math, white students in Wisconsin scored about 37% higher than black students, the story said. The state with the next biggest differences were Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio, each at 18%.

NBC 15 News reports Evers set forth some of the most restrictive measures of the COVID-19 era, including his approach to school closures.

On April 16, 2020, a week before the “Safer at Home” order was scheduled to end, Evers extended the order until May 26, 2020 and closed all schools for the remainder of the school year, NBC 15 reported. Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald criticized Evers' decision, claiming it reflected a "one-size-fits-all approach" that failed to consider how different parts of the state had been affected.

According to Fox News 6, the report also found differences among the scores of Hispanic students and those of white students. Hispanic Wisconsin eighth-grade students averaged 19 points lower than white students in reading and 27 points lower in math.

Among Wisconsin's eighth graders, the report card shows students' average reading test scores sunk back to 1998 levels, as the score this year is 262 – five points lower than the latest test in pre-pandemic 2019, the story said. For math, eighth-grade students' average score this year was 281 – lower than the 2019 score of 289.

Among Wisconsin's fourth graders, the report card shows students' average reading test score was 217, while in 2019, the state's score for this grade level was 220. For math, the average score was 240, whereas in 2019 the same Wisconsin grade level averaged 242, Fox News 6 reported.