I'm JR Radcliffe and this is the Daily Briefing newsletter by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sign up here to get it sent to your inbox each morning .
Happy Labor Day weekend to you; if you don't already have your cookouts and pool parties planned, here are some things you can do in Milwaukee this weekend. We're going to start with some rain Friday and a high of 82 degrees, but then it's sunny with a high of 84 on Saturday and a high of 78 on Sunday. Perfection.
Friday Night Lights means something different this year
Friday night football usually means bleacher seats, cheer teams and high-school rivalries, but the state football fans have an interesting Friday night slate ahead. That starts tonight, when the Wisconsin Badgers begin their second season under head coach Luke Fickell with an 8 p.m. kickoff at Camp Randall Stadium against Western Michigan.
Next Friday, it'll be the Green Bay Packers, taking on the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil.
Unlike that game in São Paulo, you won't have a problem finding a seat for cheap if you wanted to catch the Badgers a few miles to the west. That would give you a chance to see new quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, a transfer from Miami who marks the squad's third starter at the position in as many years.
Here's the full Badgers schedule this year, including a big-time battle with Alabama in two weeks. Get to know the Journal Sentinel reporter covering the Badgers, Mark Stewart , who inherits the lead reins from Jeff Potrykus. Potrykus retired after decades on the beat, but not before writing a bunch of preview stories like this one, looking at the top players the Badgers are going to face this season.
Are Wisconsin students really faring better than before?
As Alan J. Borsuk writes, the picture of academic success for students is looking better all across Wisconsin. The percentage of students who are rated in higher categories on the state’s standardized tests has gone up. And there are no more students carrying the dreaded “below basic” label for reading and math skills.
Has the actual achievement of students improved much, if at all? That’s a different question that can’t be answered yet.
Results from the state’s round of standardized tests — administered in the spring and known as the Forward tests for third through eighth graders and the ACT and PreACT Secure tests for high school students — have been distributed to school districts and schools and, in some places, to families. The overall results will not be made public until sometime this fall. But Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction leaders have released enough information to make clear that significant changes have been made in the accountability system.
In other words, comparing this years to past years will be apples to oranges in some cases, but Borsuk gives it a shot with his in-depth analysis.
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JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com . Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe .
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kick off Labor Day weekend with the Badgers
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