MADISON, Wis. — A long-awaited review of teaching practices in Milwaukee Public Schools highlights extensive issues that auditors say are harming learning outcomes, including inconsistent use of core curriculum, inadequate teacher training and a lack of collaboration across the district.
The audit published Friday focused on how students are being taught and how educators are being supported by district leaders. It’s the second of two audits that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers ordered of MPS after the district failed to submit key financial reports to the state on time last year. That failure led the state to withhold funding from MPS and prompted the resignation of the district’s superintendent and chief financial officer.
Now, the state is again withholding payments to MPS after the district missed those deadlines for a second year in a row.
The first audit commissioned by the governor was published in February and described a dysfunctional central office at MPS and a “culture of fear” among staff.
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The most recent audit seeks to explain why so many MPS students struggle academically and make recommendations for the district to improve. More than half of MPS schools failed to meet academic expectations in the last state-issued district report card, and National Assessment of Educational Progress results published in January by the Department of Education rank Milwaukee’s reading scores among the worst in the country.
“I want to thank Governor Tony Evers for recognizing the need for MPS to take a clear-eyed look at our operations and academics. This independent review provides us with insights that will help guide us to take bold action to deliver the improvements our students deserve,” MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said. “In my short time here, I’ve seen a real readiness for change. Our talented educators and dedicated staff are prepared to turn recommendations into a focused strategy.”
Auditors based their conclusions on dozens of interviews with school and district leaders, hundreds of classroom visits and teacher interviews, and thousands of survey responses form staff, students and families.
High on the list of issues they discovered was a lack of clear goals for how the district is seeking to improve learning.
“While many leaders were able to share their own vision for effective instruction, there was almost no coherence across departments or at the school level,” auditors wrote. “… Because there is no clear vision, district systems and structures lack focus and ultimately make school improvement efforts more difficult.”
Teachers reported that they don’t feel supported by school leaders and district staff and that the training they receive is out of touch with the work they’re expected to do in the classroom. Auditors also flagged significant difficulties with implementing new “science of reading” curriculum in classrooms.
The report states that “many school and district leaders demonstrated an incomplete understanding of structured literacy” and struggled to bring the new state-mandated practice into their classrooms.
Auditors are also pushing MPS to further investigate what they called “inconsistent discipline practices.”
“It’s clear that suspensions are disproportionately issued to Black students,” the report states. “This trend is even more stark in expulsions over the same period, where 92% of expulsions during the 2023-24 school year were issued to Black students.”
Other issues auditors discovered include:
- Inconsistent use of core curriculum materials across schools
- A lack of feedback from principals to teachers on how to improve their teaching practices
- Staffing levels that vary widely between schools, with high-need and low-performing schools relying more heavily on substitute teachers and struggling to find qualified educators
- Poor communication across departments within MPS and to parents and families about what’s happening in the classroom
- Unequal access to extracurriculars and specialized programs at different MPS schools
“Directing these independent audits of MPS was always about doing what’s best for our kids—to help improve student outcomes, create a culture of high achievement, better support the work of our educators, staff, and administrators in helping our kids succeed, and begin the work of restoring trust between the community and the district,” Evers said. “Now that the second of two independent audits of MPS has been completed, MPS has the blueprint it needs to do this important work.”
Cassellius, who began as superintendent in March, is already taking steps to address teacher shortages by reassigning specialists from the district’s troubled central office to classrooms. That plan has drawn backlash from the teachers union.
Auditors said Friday that they’re in talks with Cassellius about how to implement the recommendations made in the report.
Read the full report below:
Milwaukee Public Schools Instructional Review_Full Report_Final 2025-6-8[28] by TMJ4 News on Scribd
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