As required by 2005 Wisconsin Act 125, we have reviewed the pupil test score data provided to us by the School Choice Demonstration Project, which is a group of privately funded education researchers who are studying the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. The Choice program provides publicly funded private school tuition for low-income children in Milwaukee.

Project researchers are conducting a five-year longitudinal study of Choice and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) pupils first selected in the 2006-07 school year. The representative sample includes 2,727 Choice pupils who were in the third through ninth grades in fall 2006 and a comparable group of 2,727 MPS pupils. The researchers are tracking changes in Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination scores and determining how participation in the Choice program affects changes in academic achievement.

We reviewed the project's data for the 2009-10 school year, which is the fourth year the researchers arranged for the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination to be administered to Choice pupils. We analyzed and generally confirmed the analyses that they reported in March 2011, which show no significant difference in the performance of Choice pupils and similar MPS pupils after four years. However, we note that only 41.3 percent of the 2,727 Choice pupils in the researchers' sample remained in Choice schools in the 2009-10 school year.

As we discussed in our prior reports, we cannot provide legislators with information about academic performance specific to each of the 111 Choice schools that operated in the 2009-10 school year because the project, citing confidentiality concerns, has not provided us with average pupil test scores at individual Choice schools. However, 2009 Wisconsin Act 28 made several changes to testing requirements, including requiring Choice schools to administer the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination during the 2010-11 school year and report the results to the Department of Public Instruction.

We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by project researchers as we conducted this review.

As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, we have completed an evaluation of educational programs for working adults within the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS). Full-time equivalent enrollment increased 16.9 percent from fiscal year (FY) 2007-08 through FY 2009-10. WTCS attributes the increase to an increase in the number of new students, as well as students enrolling in more credit hours.

To help meet the local needs for the occupational education, training, and re-training of working adults, 31.8 percent of associate degree courses held in the Spring 2010 semester by the 16 technical college districts were scheduled after 5:00 p.m. or on weekends, or were available as online courses. Twenty-one associate degree programs are offered entirely online, and the number of online associate degree courses increased 46.4 percent over the six-semester period we reviewed, reaching 2,822 in Spring 2010. Current district policies allow other educational institutions to provide training and occupational programming in rented district facilities, which may help improve access to needed services. However, we include a recommendation for district boards to determine whether such programming could be offered by the technical colleges.

In June 2010, 259,643 individuals were unemployed, including some who were dislocated from their employment as a result of plant closings or mass layoffs. Some dislocated workers are eligible for training services funded by two federal programs, the Workforce Investment Act and the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. We estimated 7,000 students in the technical colleges were supported by these two programs in FY 2009-10. However, given the uncertainty of future federal funding levels and the likelihood of continued demand for training services, we include recommendations for updating information on funding, training needs, and employment outcomes after training.

We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by WTCS, the 16 technical college districts, and the Department of Workforce Development.