State Test Results ‘Worthless’?

Fernwood Montessori School. File photo by Dave Reid.

School board members were left confused by the results of the latest state test scores for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) students.

“Data from the WSAS [Wisconsin Student Assessment System] have undergone considerable changes with the release of the 2023– 2024 results,” wrote Robert Latterman, Assessment Specialist for Milwaukee Public Schools, in his update on the state test results, which was presented to a Milwaukee school board committee on Thursday.

Terminology changed, performance levels changed, alignments changed, and test designed changed, Latterman noted, making it difficult to compare this year’s test scores to the previous year. Add to that the interruption to education caused by the pandemic just a couple of years back, with the switch to virtual instruction, and it’s difficult to determine whether MPS is moving forward, backward, or not at all.

“The [state] superintendent has made the test scores worthless,” stated Quinton Klabon, from the conservative group, Institute for Reforming Government, who testified before the committee.

“This is the second time in four years that we have shifted data… do you have any idea why they would change the interpretation and cut scores?” asked school board director Henry Leonard.

Another conservative group, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, contends that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction keeps changing state testing to disguise lackluster student achievement.

But the MPS administration pointed to a change in state law which required DPI to change some of its testing standards: Act 20, a 2023 law passed by the Republican-dominated Wisconsin Legislature, changed how reading should be taught.

The report by Latterman noted four key findings of state assessments:

-“Overall increases are evident in the percentage of students meeting expectations.” However, the increase could be largely attributed to a change in how each category was now being defined. Students who might have been not meeting expectations last year might be being held to a lower standard this year.

-“The percentage of students meeting expectations in ELA [English Language Arts] gradually increases from third grade up to eighth grade.” This does not automatically mean students are improving from one year to the next, although they could be. Rather the students in the eighth grade simply are more likely to meet the standards this one year than the students in, say, the third grade. But they are not the same students.

-“The percentage of students meeting expectations in math gradually decreases from third grade to sixth grade.” This is similar to the outcomes in ELA except in the opposite direction.

-“Significant discrepancies remain across demographic groups.” The three major ethnic groups, Whites, Blacks, and Latinos, have dramatically differences in outcomes. Whites tend to have outcomes two or even three times better than Blacks. Latinos fall somewhere in the middle.

The percentage of schools meeting expectations are low: ELA 22.3%, math 17.7%, science 19.3% and social studies 28.6%. The percentage of students meeting expectation is more than double for the state when compared to MPS. When MPS is compared to other large Wisconsin districts, the results are more comparable, but MPS is still below those districts.

On the pre-ACT and ACT college entrance exams, MPS students score low, but have narrowed the gap with the rest of the state. However, Latterman notes that the rest of the state actually decreased test scores while MPS stayed mostly flat. ACT test scores can be measured over time, but the pandemic makes it difficult to compare scores nationally given the differences in how schools managed education during that period.

After the presentation, board members focused mostly on what could be done to improve reading scores. There was concern that that training of teachers to comply with Act 20 is taking too long. “What is holding this process up?” asked Leonard. “I don’t think we have time to waste when it comes to training our teachers, to get them on board and move this more quickly.”

Interim superintendent Eduardo Galvan stated that MPS is still waiting for more direction from DPI, the state has not released funding for teacher training, and the district must find a time that teachers can receive this training before or after school, on Saturdays, or inservice days.

On October 21, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Jill Underly sent a letter to the chairs of the Legislatures Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) stating that much of a statewide literacy coaching program has not been implemented because the JCF has not released the nearly $50 million intended to support 2023 Wisconsin Act 20.

“If we do nothing else, in the next eight months, and only focus on reading, I think it would help… I am a big proponent on prioritization of this as the foundation of every other element of a child’s journey through education,” said school board director Jilly Gokalgandhi.

“Milwaukee’s Montessori and language immersion schools, whatever their other benefits, under perform other schools of similar demographic statewide,” Klabon stated as he testified before the committee. “It is actually the Lowells and College Preparatory that really shine comparatively. (College Preparatory schools are charters of MPS. Lowell has the International Baccalaureate primary program) I suggest copying what they are doing.”

The question of what skills to emphasize in the classroom is not a new one. Under the federal “No Child Left Behind” law passed under President George W. Bush school districts cut art, music and other programs to concentrate on reading and math scores. Research followed showing that such actions were misdirected. For example, there’s a high correlation between music instruction and mathematics learning. While no board member suggested such an approach, schools may feel some pressure to move in this direction under Act 20.

Gokalgandhi made a motion that the administration come back to this committee in January with a report on what progress had been made in reading.

“I’m as equally concerned about math outcomes,” said newly elected board director James Ferguson noting that, while reading scores appear to be slightly up, math scores have fallen. He added to the motion that the report also contain progress in the math area in January. The amended motion passed.