MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s standardized test scores show that students in Milwaukee Public Schools continue to struggle with meeting academic standards in literacy, math, science, and social studies.
But what last school year’s Forward exam results don’t show is whether some learning outcomes in Wisconsin are improving. That’s because the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) changed how it evaluates student performance on the test last year.
The new benchmarks for reading and math make it almost impossible to compare data from the 2023-24 school year with previous results, and the department is warning against drawing comparisons.
DPI officials emphasize that the changes were made to get a better picture of how students are doing, not to boost flagging test scores.
Watch: Standardized test results are in, but changes make them less useful
“Standards have not been lowered,” DPI spokesperson Chris Bucher said. “We are reflecting actual student results using Wisconsin’s strong academic standards. I just want to make that clear.”
However, Alan Borsuk, a senior fellow at Marquette University Law School who has researched and written about public education in Wisconsin for decades, says that standards have, in fact, been lowered.
“It’s easier to become defined as proficient now for a Wisconsin student taking the state test,” Borsuk said. “So, I would call that lowering the bar.”
According to Borsuk, the new standards essentially undo changes made to testing standards in 2012 by then-State Superintendent Tony Evers, who is now governor. Evers raised the testing bar in hopes of encouraging higher academic excellence. Instead, it made performance appear worse because high scores were tough to reach.
Even without the ability to compare math and reading scores to previous years, individual districts can still be compared to statewide scores. In each of the four categories—English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies—the proportions of Milwaukee Public Schools students failing to meet grade-level expectations were roughly 20 to 30 percentage points higher than statewide rates.
Going forward, Borsuk says the new standards pose difficulties for policymakers and researchers tasked with addressing those low scores.
“I think people should be very concerned about the levels of achievement of Wisconsin students overall, and this is going to make understanding that picture much harder,” he said.
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