“obscuring performance data and hindering informed decision-making”
WILL:
Since at least 2020, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has made changes that obscure the true performance of schools, making it harder for Wisconsin families to make informed decisions about their children’s education. Today, Senator John Jagler (R-Watertown) and Representative Bob Wittke (R-Caledonia) introduced new legislation (LRB-0976) aimed at restoring transparency and accountability to Wisconsin’s K-12 testing regime.
The bill represents an important step in restoring the ability of parents, policymakers, and taxpayers to assess how well Wisconsin’s schools are doing across the public, charter, and private voucher sectors. Here, we will explain what the bill does, but we first begin with a look at what a mess DPI has made of accountability over the past few years.
Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, DPI has made a number of changes to Wisconsin’s academic accountability standards that have made them far less rigorous. These changes were all made unilaterally by the Department without any input from the legislature or Governor. The key changes were:
- 2020-21 School Year: DPI lowered the cut points on the state’s report cards, allowing more schools and districts to be rated as three stars or higher (“Meets Expectations” or above) without any improvement in performance.
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obscuring performance data and hindering informed decision-making
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This is just wrong. The standards are no longer aligned with national standards (NAEP). Average school proficiency jumped by 14% in math and 13.2% in ELA, despite most evidence actually pointing to lower student achievement. This was mostly the result of lowered cut points.
Parents overestimate student achievement, underestimate spending
Related: Act 10
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“An emphasis on adult employment”
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