DELAFIELD, WI – IRG Action Fund, the advocacy partner to the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG), supported AB1’s return to high academic benchmarks on state tests. Despite stating in the past that he opposed Superintendent Jill Underly’s lowering of standards, Governor Tony Evers vetoed the bill on Friday that would have undone her actions.
QUOTE: “Together, Governor Evers and Superintendent Underly have aggravated parents, school boards, legislators, and even a nonpartisan leader of NAEP itself, who called DPI’s actions ‘cynical,’” said Quinton Klabon, IRG Senior Research Director. “By abandoning college readiness as a standard but failing to align to grade-level standards, the demolition crew in Madison has wrecked school accountability for a generation. In the meantime, the rest of us must do better for our kids.”
WHY IT MATTERS:
- Under Superintendent Underly’s leadership, Wisconsin lowered its test score standards: As Governor Evers noted, schools currently cannot compare students to before the pandemic and families cannot understand if their children are ready for college or a career.
- The Evers-Underly standards paint a rosier picture than reality: According to national NAEP test standards, only 31% of young Wisconsin students are proficient in reading, far below the 52% claimed by the lower Evers-Underly standards. Wisconsin ranks 34th in the nation.
- As a result, Wisconsin is a national laughingstock: NAEP’s Board Vice Chair called Wisconsin leaders’ actions “a cynical move that seems aimed at masking the extent of the challenge.” Education Week, The 74, and an editorial in The New York Times trashed the standards Governor Evers just made permanent.
- Superintendent Underly wanted lowered standards so Wisconsin would not be “judged negatively”: “I also want to…norm our levels to be similar to other states… as I hear that we have some of the highest cut scores nationally. I would like them to be looked at so that we aren’t judged negatively when we have direct standards,” she wrote to staff.
- New scores reflect other states’ standards: “…Our Forward Exam performance levels should reflect where kids are on Wisconsin standards,” wrote Superintendent Underly. But teachers who reset benchmarks “were encouraged to use the benchmarks as a reasonability check for their recommendations” from Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, shifting proficiency benchmarks by up to 19%.