“What they realized was that particularly in states like ours, with relatively small communities of color, the overall averages were really masking some deep challenges in our state,” Taylor said. “Because we’re roughly 85 percent white and the well-being of white kids is so much better than the well-being of kids of color overall, when we look at how kids are doing in our state, we tend to rank pretty well.”

Wisconsin’s last-place ranking for African-American kids came as a surprise to some, Taylor said, because when people think of generational poverty, they typically think of deep-south states like Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, which are listed with Wisconsin among the worst five states for African-American children.

Michigan is also among them. In fact, Midwestern states are well-represented among those with the lowest rankings for African-American kids. Michigan barely edged out Mississippi, and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa rank below the national average.

“No one is surprised that Mississippi is near the bottom,” said Taylor. “They’re near the bottom for black kids and they’re near the bottom for white kids. In part because they don’t invest in kids, and because there’s a lot of poverty in the deep South.”