MADISON, Wis. — With the latest results from the Nation’s Report Card out this week, the conversation continues in Madison about whether the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) should return to an old way of measuring how well students are doing in the classroom.

Once again, the report ranked Wisconsin the worst in the nation for racial disparity, with the widest gap in math and reading scores between Black and white students.


What You Need To Know

  • A group of Wisconsin Republicans introduced legislation that would go back to the testing standards used during the 2019-2020 school year that were originally put in place by now Gov. Tony Evers, who was serving as State Superintendent at the time

  • The recent changes by DPI were meant to address a disconnect between what teachers experienced in the classroom and the terminology used to describe student success

  • This week, the National Assessment of Educational Progress report showed Wisconsin ranked worst in the nation for racial disparity, with the biggest gap between Black and white students in math and reading

Returning to the previously used metrics could be an area of compromise between Gov. Tony Evers, who used to be the State Superintendent of DPI, and legislative Republicans, who are pushing to go back to the previously used testing standards.

“I just think there should have been some information and dialogue happening with all sorts of people,” Gov. Evers told reporters earlier this month when asked about the change. “It’s hard to compare year-to-year if one year you are doing something completely different, and so do I think it could have been handled better? Yes.”

Republicans have now put forth a bill to go back to the testing standards used during the 2019-2020 school year before new performance level standards were put in place.

“What DPI did is cloud the water, so it’s really hard to tell overtime, one; how your student is doing, and then for policymakers, we no longer have a sort of chain of data that is consistent overtime,” Will Flanders, Research Director at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, explained. “We are implementing important things like reading reforms across the state right now. It would be good to see how those are doing, but with the changes DPI made, it’s impossible to do that because there’s no consistent pattern of how we’re measuring student performance.”

The recent changes by DPI not only altered how student success is described, but it also lowered the threshold for what is considered proficient.

With the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) out this week, State Superintendent Jill Underly renewed her call for more investments in education.

“While the NAEP results highlight some successes, [Wednesday’s] release serves as an urgent wake-up call for our state – one that demands we act with greater urgency to support our children, educators, and schools,” Underly said. “We have the power to achieve lasting change, but it starts with a fundamental commitment to properly investing in our public schools, rather than continuing the cycle of underfunding them, as our legislature has chosen to do for far too long.”

Last year, Underly called for $4 billion in new spending on K-12 schools. While Gov. Evers said during his recent State of the State address that he would be proposing historic investments in education, his budget likely won’t go that far.