Underly says critics of new state testing benchmarks ‘getting it wrong’

A change in the way Wisconsin measures student achievement on state tests is getting political blowback from both sides of the aisle.

The Department of Public Instruction lowered the threshold for what is proficient on the state tests and changed the terms to describe student success. Most noticeably, “basic” and “below basic” are no longer being used.

Students are no longer “proficient.” They are “meeting” expectations.

State Superintendent Jill Underly said the new standards illustrate what students should know at a given grade level. 

She said the updated Forward Exam process was designed by a group of 88 educators representing education sectors and areas across Wisconsin including 12 regional district support agencies, the state’s five largest school districts and private voucher schools. 

But the new benchmarks make it so 2023-24 scores can’t be compared to previous years and the change has been criticized by Republicans and by Underly’s long-time ally Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. 

Evers told reporters late last week that there were not enough conversations with parents before the change and it “could have been handled better.” 

Underly said she has not spoken to Evers, since the comments, but her team has spoken to his team. She didn’t elaborate.

On Wednesday, Assembly Leader Robin Vos, R-Rochester, followed up on Evers’ comments saying one of his top priorities in the next Legislative session will be to make sure educational standards are not “dumbed down.”

“She wants to make it easier for failing schools to somehow seem like they’re succeeding,” Vos said during a press conference. “I hope that’s one of the areas that we’ll get some speedy discussion on, hopefully bipartisan support. Because I would hope that no one, the most liberal person or the most conservative person, would want to dumb down our standards.”

In an interview with WPR, Underly said the change was made to make test scores more meaningful.

She said decisions were not made in a vacuum.

“So we aligned the standards to actual scores that would mean something. Updating those scores aligned the Wisconsin test to the Wisconsin standards, so Wisconsin teachers and parents know how Wisconsin kids are doing,” Underly said. “The critics are absolutely getting it wrong. They’re talking about two different things, and that’s what’s frustrating about it.”