{"id":15815,"date":"2025-03-18T20:36:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T21:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15815"},"modified":"2025-03-18T22:01:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T22:01:44","slug":"will-urges-evers-to-sign-ab1-and-make-high-academic-standards-bipartisan-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15815","title":{"rendered":"WILL Urges Evers to Sign AB1 and Make High Academic Standards Bipartisan Once Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-urges-evers-to-sign-ab1-and-make-high-academic-standards-bipartisan-once-again\/\">https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-urges-evers-to-sign-ab1-and-make-high-academic-standards-bipartisan-once-again\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_0 et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_0\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_3_4 et_pb_column_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p>The News: The Wisconsin State Senate passed Assembly Bill 1, which would reverse actions over recent years by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) that have lowered academic and performance standards for Wisconsin students. The bill now heads to Governor Evers for his consideration and the Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty is publicly urging the governor to sign it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Quote: WILL Policy Director, Kyle Koenen, stated, \u201cGovernor Evers promised to make 2025 the \u2018Year of the Kid\u2019 and Assembly Bill 1 is an opportunity to do just that. Ensuring high standards for our schools should not be a partisan issue and we praised the Governor for his criticism of the Department of Public Instruction\u2019s actions earlier this year. A veto would be a major setback for Wisconsin students, who deserve rigorous academic standards that set them up for success in the future.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Additional Background:\u00a0Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, DPI made several changes to Wisconsin\u2019s academic accountability system that have made it less rigorous.\u202fThese changes were made unilaterally by the Department without any input from the legislature or Governor. These changes included:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2020-21:\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/dpi.wi.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/imce\/accountability\/pdf\/Whats_New_for_2020-21_02_2022.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DPI lowered the cut points<\/a>\u202fon the state\u2019s report cards, allowing more schools and districts to be rated as three stars or higher\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>2023-24:\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/dpi.wi.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/imce\/assessment\/pdf\/Assessment_Perfomance_Levels_handout.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DPI changed the labels<\/a>\u202fon the categories for outcomes on the Forward Exam.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>2023-24:<a href=\"https:\/\/dpi.wi.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/imce\/assessment\/pdf\/2024_Forward_Exam_Performance_Level_Standard_Setting.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u202fDPI lowered the cut points<\/a>\u202fon the Forward Exam, allowing students to be judged proficient at lower scores.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Earlier this year, WILL endorsed Assembly Bill 1, introduced by Senator John Jagler (R-Watertown) and Representative Bob Wittke (R-Caledonia), because it would reverse DPI\u2019s actions and revert to previous cut scores and labels. The bill passed the State Assembly on February 19th and the Senate followed suit today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The previous standards were also instituted by Governor Evers when he served as Superintendent of DPI. Recently, the governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs58.com\/news\/gov-evers-critical-of-dpi-lowering-test-standards-surprised-by-decision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">expressed surprise and frustration<\/a> with the changes made by DPI, stating: \u201cI think we need to have as high of standards as possible. I don\u2019t think we should be lowering them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/taking-the-blindfold-off-k-12-accountability\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taking the Blindfold off K-12 Accountability, <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/taking-the-blindfold-off-k-12-accountability\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 2025<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Testimony-on-AB-1-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WILL Testimony in Support of AB 1, <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Testimony-on-AB-1-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 2025<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_4 et_pb_column_1  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_team_member et_pb_team_member_0 clearfix  et_pb_text_align_center et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_image et-waypoint et_pb_animation_off\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"617\" height=\"980\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/WILL_Kyle_Color_002_WEB_980x617_100ppi_Sharpened.jpg\" alt=\"Kyle Koenen\" class=\"wp-image-9282\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_description\">\n<h4 class=\"et_pb_module_header\">Kyle Koenen<\/h4>\n<p class=\"et_pb_member_position\">Director of Policy<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Kyle@will-law.org<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-urges-evers-to-sign-ab1-and-make-high-academic-standards-bipartisan-once-again\/\">WILL Urges Evers to Sign AB1 and Make High Academic Standards Bipartisan Once Again<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\">Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-urges-evers-to-sign-ab1-and-make-high-academic-standards-bipartisan-once-again\/ The News: The Wisconsin State Senate passed Assembly Bill&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15815","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\/15815","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\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15817,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815\/revisions\/15817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}