Underly Defends Changing Standards While GOP Lawmakers Propose Reversion

State Superintendent Jill Underly with Madison La Follette High School Principal Mathew Thompson and Madison Public School District Superintendent Joe Gothard in the hallway at La Follette in September 2024. Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner

Wisconsin lawmakers are seeking to reset the state’s testing standards to what they were in the 2019-2020 school year after the Department of Public Instruction implemented new performance level standards last year — a decision that DPI Superintendent Jill Underly has repeatedly defended.

The co-authors on the bill — Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown), Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Caledonia) and Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville) — say it’s needed to “reinstate” high academic standards in Wisconsin. In a statement, Jagler accused DPI of making the decision to change the way the state measures academic standards in a non transparent way.

“These changes were made behind closed doors in advance and revealed only when the test scores were announced,” Jagler said in a statement. “Not surprisingly, the massive uptick in artificial performance gains was confusing at best and misleading at worst. We also lost, because of these changes, the ability to compare performance from previous years.”

The changes and reactions

Wisconsin students take standardized tests every year with third graders through eighth graders taking the Forward test, which was first created in 2016, and high school students taking the ACT and PreACT Secure. The tests are meant to help inform schools, teachers and families about “what students know in core academic areas and whether they can apply what they know.”

According to DPI, evaluating standards is a routine process. Specifically, every seven years the state reviews, and may update, its state standards in various subject areas to ensure they remain current. This process happened for English, Language Arts (ELA) in 2020 and math in 2021.

The new standards meant that DPI also needed to reevaluate the Forward exam and corresponding performance level standards and “cut scores” — the minimum scores needed  to qualify for categories including “advanced” and “developing.” The DPI started the process of reevaluating cut scores in 2023.

A similar process for setting standards took place in June 2016 when the Forward exam was administered for the first time, under the guidance of then-Superintendent and now-Gov. Tony Evers.

Last year, two changes were made to the cut scores after an evaluation process.

First, new terms were established to describe student achievement — “advanced,” “meeting,” “approaching” and “developing.” Previously, the terms, which were established in 2016, were “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” and “advanced.”

The new terms were announced in early June 2024 after DPI received feedback in December 2023, including 800 responses and 500 comments to a survey sent to educators, administrators, parents, families and education groups.

“I’ve often heard confusion from parents, families, and legislators on what performance terms on tests meant in regard to where students are at academically,” Underly said at the time. The new terms, she said, are “not only clearer, it also recognizes the endless potential each of our students has as learners.”

The second change was to the state’s cut scores, which came after a standard-setting meeting also held in June.

According to DPI, about 88 educators — including mathematics and reading specialists, classroom teachers, school principals, curriculum and instruction coordinators and specialists, interventionists, instructional coaches, gifted and advanced coordinators and CESA staff — participated in the standard-setting meeting. The group included representatives from each of Wisconsin’s CESAs, the five largest school districts, private schools in the school choice program and rural, suburban, and urban school districts. The group then submitted a recommendation to the state superintendent, which was approved later in June.

The new cut scores switched the state from a 3-digit number to a 4-digit number score for the math and ELA test and changed the test scores needed to qualify to be placed in each performance level. For example, under the previous cut scores, a third-grade student would need a 624 on the ELA test to be considered “advanced.” Under the new cut scores, a third-grade student would need a 1622 on the ELA test to be considered “advanced.”

Under the new standards, the 2023-24 test results showed that the public school student proficiency rate in ELA was 48% and Wisconsin students had a proficiency rate of 49% in math. In the previous year, public school student proficiency rates in ELA and math were at 38.9% and 37.4% respectively.

The changes mean that the test was no longer aligned with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Prior to the changes Wisconsin’s scores were aligned to NAEP, and its performance level expectations were among the highest in the nation. Underly has said tying Wisconsin’s standards to NAEP’s created a “misalignment” in how success was measured and that the state’s standards were excessively high when compared to other states.

The changes, however, drew pushback from Evers and Republican lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester).

“I hate to even talk about things that aren’t my purview anymore in the Department of Public Instruction but I just think there should have been some information and dialogue happening with all sorts of people before that decision,” Evers said at a press conference in January.  “It’s hard to compare year to year if one year you’re doing something completely different. “I think it could have been handled better.”

“Superintendent Underly wants to make it harder for parents to understand when their school is succeeding or failing,” Vos said at a press conference earlier this month. “She wants to make it easier for failing schools to somehow seem like they’re succeeding.” He said he wants to see “speedy discussion” and “bipartisan support” for raising Wisconsin’s educational standards.

“I would hope that no one, the most liberal person or the most conservative person, would want to dumb down our standards so kids aren’t able to read, and the parents aren’t able to even know whether or not their kids are succeeding,” Vos said.

Critics of the change have also complained that the new cut scores “lowered” educational standards in Wisconsin and have made it difficult to compare data to earlier years.

Republicans’ proposal

Republicans’ new proposal would require that Wisconsin revert its educational assessments to using the cut scores, score ranges and qualitative terms that DPI used for report cards published for the 2019-2020 school year.

The bill would also require DPI to align the Forward exam cut scores, score ranges and pupil performance categories to the cut scores, score ranges and pupil performance categories to those set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

When it comes to the PreACT and ACT with Writing in English, Reading, and Mathematics, the bill would require DPI to use the same cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories that DPI used in the 2021-22 school year and for DPI to use the terms “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” and “advanced” for pupil performance categories on these assessments.

The Republican coauthors of the bill noted in a memo to colleagues that 94% of schools in Wisconsin fell in the “Meet Expectations or Higher” category, according to the school and district accountability report cards released in November.

“There is no doubt we have many great schools in Wisconsin but when every school is given a ‘C’ or better it makes it impossible to have an honest discussion of where we need improvement,” the lawmakers wrote.

Wittke said in a statement that it was “troubling” to see “changing testing protocols is the path the State Superintendent has chosen in response to students’ poor reading and math performance.”

“Let’s set the bar as established by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and make a better effort to understand student needs for academic improvement,” Wittke said.

Underly has repeatedly defended the changes, and did so again in a statement rejecting the claims that Wisconsin’s standards were lowered and criticizing lawmakers for seeking to interfere with the changes that were made.

“As I have repeatedly said, standards have not been lowered,” Underly said, adding that the process for changing the standards was “transparent” and changes reflected the recommendations of experts.

“The updated assessment, developed with significant and transparent communication with the field, is more accurate and reflective of student performance for Wisconsin families,” Underly wrote.

“As it relates to report cards, we share legislators’ belief that the system can be improved but the right answer is not to look to the past, but to work together to create the best system for the future,” Underly said. “It’s disappointing but unsurprising that some politicians believe they know better than our educators. When historic numbers of teachers are leaving our state or classroom altogether, they should be investing in education, not picking political fights on false premises.”

Underly is running for a second term as DPI superintendent and faces two challengers — Brittany Kinser and Jeff Wright — in a February primary. Both candidates said they support the bill.

Kinser said she “strongly” supports the effort to restore the standards that were in place under Evers.

“As a former teacher and principal, I know students rise to the expectations set for them,” Kinser said in a statement.  “Lowering standards deprives our kids of the opportunity to be college- or career-ready, and that is unacceptable in Wisconsin. Our kids deserve more, not less, and I look forward to working with the legislature to pass this proposal.”

Wright said the changes came at “the worst possible time” given that schools are still trying to assess students’ progress after COVID, but said it’s “unfortunate” that lawmakers are stepping in.

“This is happening because of the absence of system-wide collaboration and open communication,” Wright said. “I look forward to working with our Legislature as a nonpartisan problem solver to do what is right for our schools.”

GOP lawmakers propose reverting to old testing standards as Superintendent Underly defends changes was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.