IRG’s CIO Exposes DPI Records on New, Biased Test Score Standards
Wisconsin’s 2024 test scores, out tomorrow, are inflated, biased, and unreliable.
How they got that way is the subject of “Testing Our Patience: How Wisconsin Lowered Standards, Widened the Achievement Gap, and Busted Its State Exams,” the latest Institute for Reforming Government Center for Investigative Oversight (IRG CIO) report. The report and supporting materials are located at reforminggovernment.org/test-score-changes.
What Happened: Public records obtained by IRG CIO reveal DPI management knew its inflation of Wisconsin’s proficiency rates would come at a cost: wider achievement gaps for Black, special needs, and impoverished students, a bias toward schools serving high-income students, and a future where 93% of districts score 4 or 5 stars on state report cards.
Records also revealed that State Superintendent Underly criticized “nonsense going on with literacy” in June 2023, a week after critical Act 20 reading reforms were introduced.
Much more, here.
