{"id":15004,"date":"2025-01-29T12:40:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15004"},"modified":"2025-01-29T14:01:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T14:01:30","slug":"new-naep-results-highlight-how-dpi-has-cooked-the-books-on-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15004","title":{"rendered":"New NAEP Results Highlight How DPI Has Cooked the Books on Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/new-naep-results-highlight-how-dpi-has-cooked-the-books-on-accountability\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a nationally representative sample of schools throughout the country that allows for an apples-to-apples comparison of students in each state, and some cities. Early this morning, the 2024 NAEP results were released. Not surprisingly, they paint a dim picture of student performance since the pandemic, both in Wisconsin and across the nation. Here are four main takeaways. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dramatic Drops in Student Performance<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Student performance in 4<\/span>th<\/span> grade reading in Wisconsin was the lowest that had been recorded since at least 1992. \u00a04<\/span>th<\/span> grade math was at it\u2019s lowest level since 2003. \u00a0Despite spending more than $18,000 per student, not to mention huge amounts of federal funding entering the system during the COVID-19 pandemic, student outcomes have only gotten worse. This should be a five-alarm fire for the education establishment. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

NAEP Results Clearly Show how DPI has \u2018Cooked the Books\u2019 with academic outcomes. <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we have discussed on several occasions, in 2024 DPI lowered the standards and cut scores for proficiency on the state\u2019s Forward Exam for the most recent academic year. \u00a0Proficiency was previously tied to the NAEP in reading and math\u2014meaning that proficiency on the Forward Exam was comparable to NAEP proficiency. \u00a0But now, that tie is broken, and Forward Exam proficiency has been dramatically inflated. \u00a0The figure below shows the gap when it comes to 4<\/span>th<\/span> grade reading. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Proficiency on the state exam was 20% higher than on the NAEP. Large gaps also exist when it comes to math (12% higher at the fourth grade level).<\/span>\u00a0 This means that DPI is deeming 20% of students proficient in reading that really aren\u2019t\u2013effectively lying to parents and Wisconsinites concerned about education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This illustrates, once again, the absurdity of DPI\u2019s new definition of \u201cmeeting expectations.\u201d\u00a0 Fortunately, <\/span>legislation<\/span><\/a> has been proposed by Senator Jagler and Representative Witke that bring back a tie to the NAEP for the Forward Exam, as well as make other changes to create a more accurate accountability system for parents and taxpayers. This gap highlights the importance of this bill.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Weak Foundation<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As has been pointed out by AEI Scholar <\/span>Nat Malkus<\/span><\/a>, declines in recent iterations of the NAEP are less across the board than they are driven by declines among the lowest performers. A similar trend has been seen in recent years in this state. The chart below shows the performance of the 25<\/span>th<\/span> and 75<\/span>th<\/span> percentiles in 4<\/span>th<\/span> grade reading going back to 2015.\u00a0\u00a0 While there has been a slight decline of 3 points at the 75<\/span>th<\/span> percentile, the 25<\/span>th<\/span> percentile has taken a far bigger dive of 12 points. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Achievement Gaps Persist<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the 2022 edition of the NAEP, Wisconsin had the largest racial achievement gaps of any state in both math and reading at the fourth and eighth grade levels.\u00a0 The 2024 data show that this continues to be the case<\/span>. In fourth grade reading, there is a 45-point gap between white and black students in overall score. \u00a0The only NAEP area with a wider margin is Washington DC. The figure below shows the change in the gap from 2022 to 2024 in fourth grade reading.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Achievement gaps exist not only along racial lines, but also along lines of income as well. \u00a0Historically, Wisconsin has been slightly better on the gap between lower- and higher-income students (as defined by eligibility for the National Free Lunch Program). In 2024, the gap widened in some areas, with higher income students in the state actually increasing their performance. The results for eighth grade math are shown below. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n
\n

Milwaukee Continues to Struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much like the state as a whole, Milwaukee continues to see declining performance.\u00a0 The table below shows 4th grade reading for Milwaukee since 2017. The outcome for Milwaukee was the lowest recorded in this time frame.\u00a0 The average score of 179 is well below the national average even for other large cities (208). A similar story holds in math, where the district\u2019s score of 205 was both the lowest since 2017 and lower than the large city average (231).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite spending nearly $18,000 per student, education in Wisconsin continues to stagnate, or even get worse. It is vital that we have a clear picture of where students stand, and that families have options to\u00a0choose alternative options if local public schools aren\u2019t meeting their needs. \u00a0More than 800,000 students across the state need an education that prepares them for the world, not political posturing. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The post New NAEP Results Highlight How DPI Has Cooked the Books on Accountability<\/a> appeared first on Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/new-naep-results-highlight-how-dpi-has-cooked-the-books-on-accountability\/ The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15011,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions\/15011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}