State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly on the progress MPS has recently made towards financial stability
This past summer, behind closed doors and under a veil of secrecy that even included the signing of a non-disclosure agreement, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, quietly took several steps that will lower academic standards for Wisconsin's students - all with zero input from parents or lawmakers. These unilateral decisions by State Superintendent Jill Underly will not only impact how schools are assessed but will ultimately leave parents in the dark about their child's progress.
The previous standards were implemented in 2012 under Gov. Tony Evers, who was then serving as DPI Superintendent, with bipartisan support. These standards aligned Wisconsin with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and were designed to assess whether students were ready for college and careers. But now, a much lower bar has been created in Wisconsin and NAEP alignment is gone.
Lowered standards can create false sense of academic progress
For example, on the most recent round of the NAEP, about 32% of Wisconsin 8 graders were found to be proficient in reading. This is comparable to the 36% who were found to be proficient on the 2022-23 Forward Exam. But proficiency among this group jumped to 48.4% in 2023-24 on the state exam, creating a 16-percentage point gap. Even Evers has openly criticized these new lowered standards, stating that he believes, "We need to have as high of standards as possible."
Even worse than losing the ability to compare Wisconsin students to students nationally on the NAEP is that the changes were so significant that it will make it nearly impossible to compare progress with previous years. In previous years, scores were reported on a three-digit scale, but now a four-digit scale is used. This change means that the new standards cannot easily be mapped onto the old ones, and any hope of measuring year-to-year progress is lost.
That's particularly problematic in a post-pandemic environment where most students in Wisconsin fell behind academically and have struggled to catch back up. A study by Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research, found that between 2019 and 2022, Wisconsin student achievement fell by 37% of a grade equivalent in math and 28% in reading. While achievement has rebounded slightly, most districts are still behind their pre-pandemic levels.
DPI even changed the names of categories of results on exam
These shifts are made even more confusing by the curious decision of DPI to change the names of the categories of results on the exam. Instead of the long-used labels of Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, the category names have been changed to Developing, Approaching, and Meeting (the highest category -- Advanced -- stayed the same under the new formulation).
It is unclear why these changes were made. But what is clear is that they make it more difficult for parents to understand how well their children are doing in school. Telling a parent that their child is "approaching" proficiency may be a more hopeful message that reduces the heat on a child's school, but it may not be true and could create a sense of complacency rather than urgency in parents about the need to improve.
Changes to the Forward exam will also exacerbate pre-existing problems with Wisconsin's state report cards, which already set a low bar for success. On last year's report card, 55% of schools with ELA proficiency under 30% -- including 54 such schools in Milwaukee -- were judged to "Meet Expectations" on the state report card. This includes Hi-Mount Elementary in Milwaukee where zero -- yes -- zero kids were proficient in ELA.
Rather than the lowered accountability standards brought about by these changes, parents actually want greater accountability and focus on academic results. A recent poll showed that 72% of parents nationwide believe that schools are not focusing on ensuring schools are proficient at important basic skills like reading and math. Furthermore, 81% of parents say that "we should expect more out of our public schools and should hold them more accountable for educating students." This is ripe opportunity for common ground.
Wisconsin parents deserve an accountability system that provides transparent, honest data and not one that is manipulated for political games. Legislators and the Governor should work together in the upcoming legislative session to reverse these changes, and rein in the ability of DPI to make unilateral changes like this in the future.