Your child may not be doing as well in school as you think. State lowered bar
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 8th 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.”
