From the Center Square: Critics call jump in Wisconsin standardized test scores ‘ludicrous’
(The Center Square) – The latest test results show more students in Wisconsin’s public schools are scoring better at reading and writing, but critics say it’s an illusion.
The state’s Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday released the results from the Forward Exam, for middle and elementary school students, and the ACT for high-schoolers.
“Standardized assessment results released today by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction show about half of tested students in both public and private school choice programs during the 2023-24 school year are considered proficient in English language arts and mathematics,” DPI said in a statement.
The scores show 51% of Wisconsin children are proficient in reading and 53% are proficient in math. That’s up from last year’s scores that showed 39% were proficient in reading and 41% were proficient in math.
Quinton Klabon, an educational analyst with the Institute for Reforming Government, said the scores jumped dramatically not because Wisconsin students got better at reading and writing, but because DPI changed the test scores.
“All of this is ludicrous. DPI was the best in the nation at data, I thought, and now they are producing stuff like this,” Klabon said. “Ignore the scores and pray somebody fixes them.”
Wisconsin State Superintendent Jill Underly, however, defended the change to the test scores.
“Standardized tests are just one measure of student success and only tell us where a student performs on one given day. There are so many other inputs and factors that affect students’ academic performance,” Underly wrote Tuesday. “As a state, we need to work together to meet these very real and diverse needs and support our students, our educators, and our schools.”
An IRG report showed that Underly demanded the test scores be changed in an attempt to make Wisconsin schools look better compared to other states.
Still, the state’s public schools have broad learning gaps.
Klabon points out that richer, whiter schools scored better under the new test scores than poorer, more minority schools. And suburban schools out-scored rural schools in the state.
“[The] new scores inequitably favor advantaged students,” Klabon added.
For instance, Klabon noted that white students scored 60% proficiency in reading and 64% proficiency in math. That’s up from 47% and 50% last year. But that’s ahead of black students in Wisconsin who the new test scores show are 18% proficient in reading, 14% proficient in math. That’s up from 10% and 8% last year, but still behind their white peers.
The numbers are similar when you look at income. Low-income students in Wisconsin scored 33% proficient in reading, 34% proficient in math, while non-low income students were 65% proficient in reading, 69% proficient in math.