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Although policymakers generally appreciate the value of crafting policies that are responsive to teacher and principal voice, doing so in a systematic way is challenging. Educator voices in the room when policies are made are often those of teachers and principals closest to policymakers. In 2019, to broaden the range of educator voices available to policymakers in Wisconsin, we asked more than 2,200 teachers and 700 principals in public schools in Wisconsin how "they" would change policy to improve the academic success of economically disadvantaged students. In total, 1,559 teachers and 601 principals offered suggestions for changing policy across four categories: school level--academic, student level, school level--non-academic, and community level. Though we saw variation in responses based on percent of student body eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch, grade levels served (elementary, middle, high school) and community type (city, suburb, town, rural), many responses appear with similar frequency among practitioners across contexts--indicating promise for making broader changes that impact all schools.

Wisconsin's gaps between Black and White student high school graduation rates (Richards, 2016) and Black and White fourth-grade math and reading scores (U.S. Department of Education, 2015) are the largest in the nation. These inequalities have led to criticisms of Wisconsin's schools and teachers as ineffective in bolstering the success of students of color and those who are economically disadvantaged. However, serious attention to disparities in school readiness has largely been absent from these conversations. The authors know that nationally, students of color and children who are poor enter Kindergarten substantially behind their peers (Reardon & Portilla, 2016) and that disparity can account for much, if not most, of the achievement gap seen later in primary and secondary school (Bradbury, Corak, Waldfogel, & Washbrook, 2015). This report describes differences in school readiness as reflected by literacy skills at Kindergarten entry among children in Wisconsin. The authors document inequalities in literacy skills by race/ethnicity, family income and place. Results show that teachers and schools in Wisconsin face a daunting challenge in producing equitable educational outcomes for children.