The U.S. Department of Education has just released its report on racial school achievement gaps based on data from the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress. The report shows that Wisconsin’s serious achievement gap between White and African-American students persists (Hispanic student performance will be addressed in a later report). The Wisconsin State Journal story about the report leads with the discouraging factoid that “Wisconsin is the only state in the nation where the achievement gap between black and white students in reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades exceeds the national average.” As the WSJ story notes, this study presents a “30,000-foot view,” and is not as meaningful as a comprehensive state-level assessment. But it does demonstrate that the gap is an obstinate problem, and that we must continue to build on existing strategies to combat it, such as investment in quality early education, smaller class sizes, afterschool programming, and other solutions that research has shown to be effective in closing the gap. Our 2006 WisKids policy brief “Mind the Gap” examined these issues and described the comprehensive approach Wisconsin should take to address the achievement gap.