The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) endorsed new legislation (LRB-0976) by Senator John Jagler (R-Watertown) and Representative Bob Wittke (R-Caledonia) to reverse the years-long process of lowering academic and performance standards by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). WILL believes these changes have been made to hide declining academic performance of Wisconsin schools since 2020.
The Quotes: WILL Research Director, Will Flanders PhD, stated, “The bill represents a critical 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. Make no mistake, since 2020, DPI has essentially changed the definition of success to mislead the public about stagnating academic performance in Wisconsin schools.”
Additional Background: 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: DPI lowered the cut points on the state’s report cards, allowing more schools and districts to be rated as three stars or higher
2023-24: DPI changed the labels on the categories for outcomes on the Forward Exam.
2023-24: DPI lowered the cut points on the Forward Exam, allowing students to be judged proficient at lower scores.
The new legislation from Senator Jagler and Representative Witke will remove the rose-colored glasses and restore accountability to Wisconsin’s K-12 testing regime.
Governor Evers served as Superintendent of DPI when the previous standards were in place, and he has expressed surprise and frustration with the changes made in recent years. Having high standards for our schools should not be a partisan issue, and we simply can’t keep lowering the bar when those standards aren’t met.
Read More:
WILL Analysis: Taking the Blindfold Off K-12 Accountability, 1.21.25
LRB-0976 – Changes to the educational assessment program, the school and school district accountability report, and granting rule-making authority.
Read and share the press release online here.
