{"id":17970,"date":"2025-11-20T11:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17970"},"modified":"2025-11-20T13:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T13:04:25","slug":"wisconsin-dpi-mired-in-one-scandal-after-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17970","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin\u00a0DPI\u00a0mired in one scandal after another"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/wisconsin-dpi-mired-in-one-scandal-after-another\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Botched report cards, lowered standards, licensing and finance scandals\u00a0erode faith in DPI<\/em><\/h4>\n

Accused of gutting academic standards, manipulating report cards, slacking on fiscal oversight and bungling oversight of sexual misconduct among teachers, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is facing a crisis of confidence \u2014 and new questions about whether it\u00a0is\u00a0capable of handling\u00a0myriad key\u00a0functions.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The latest blow to\u00a0Wisconsin\u2019s chief regulator of schools and teachers\u00a0came with\u00a0this month\u2019s release of its\u00a0widely panned\u00a0new\u00a0\u201creport cards\u201d on school districts\u2019 performance.<\/p>\n

The new report cards rate 94 percent of Wisconsin school districts as either \u201cmeeting,\u201d \u201cexceeding\u201d or \u201csignificantly exceeding\u201d expectations\u00a0in a state where, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos pointed out this week, only half of students\u00a0are proficient in\u00a0\u201cEnglish language arts\u201d \u2014 that is,\u00a0reading.\u00a0There\u00a0is a school in Milwaukee that \u201cexceeds expectations,\u201d according to the new report cards,\u00a0despite the\u00a0fact\u00a0only 13 percent of its students meet or exceed expectations in reading, for example.<\/p>\n

Misleading scores \u201care covering up a failing system that is neglecting our kids,\u201d he\u00a0wrote Tuesday<\/a>\u00a0in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0episode is\u00a0only the latest\u00a0in a series of\u00a0missteps by\u00a0the agency,\u00a0on matters ranging from educator misconduct to botched finances,\u00a0that raise questions about\u00a0whether DPI\u00a0is capable of acknowledging its own failing grades.<\/p>\n

Lower\u00a0standards<\/h4>\n

Last year,\u00a0DPI\u00a0 changed\u00a0the scoring system\u00a0on\u00a0the state\u2019s Forward test for individual students.\u00a0Those changes included\u00a0changing<\/a>\u00a0\u201cbelow basic,\u201d \u201cbasic\u201d and \u201cproficient\u201d\u00a0categories to\u00a0\u201cdeveloping,\u201d \u201capproaching\u201d and \u201cmeeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency also changed the boundaries between categories, a shift that meant a leap of about\u00a010\u00a0percentage points<\/a>\u00a0in the share of children\u00a0\u201cmeeting\u201d the standards for\u00a0proficiency\u00a0even as\u00a0unchanged national measures showed\u00a0declining<\/a>\u00a0levels<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0proficiency\u00a0among Wisconsin students.<\/p>\n

Scores can no longer be\u00a0compared to students\u2019 pre-2024 performance,\u00a0DPI itself warned<\/a>, and Wisconsin\u2019s measures of\u00a0proficiency\u00a0no longer match the long-running National\u00a0Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP,\u00a0test that\u00a0allows comparisons between states.<\/p>\n

Lack of transparency<\/h4>\n

The DPI made the changes\u00a0\u2014\u00a0reportedly driven\u00a0by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly\u2019s dissatisfaction with Wisconsin\u2019s weak showing in cross-state NAEP\u00a0comparisons\u00a0\u2014\u00a0through an internal process\u00a0not open\u00a0to public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Criticism arose again earlier this fall when\u00a0a Madison news outlet, the Cap Times,\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0the DPI\u00a0failed to\u00a0sufficiently make public\u00a0more than 200\u00a0allegation\u00a0of teacher misconduct, including sexual misconduct or grooming,\u00a0from 2018 to 2023.<\/p>\n

Underly\u00a0complained<\/a>\u00a0to the outlet about the coverage without\u00a0identifying\u00a0any\u00a0factual errors, then came under\u00a0fire herself\u00a0for skipping an Assembly hearing as the scandal\u00a0worsened.<\/p>\n

Underly\u00a0did show up<\/a>\u00a0to a Senate\u00a0education\u00a0committee hearing\u00a0in November\u00a0and promised\u00a0to put\u00a0the names of educators whose licenses have been revoked by the DPI or voluntarily surrendered to it on a publicly accessible database.\u00a0Underly said\u00a0such information\u00a0always was\u00a0public,\u00a0though\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0currently available only by\u00a0placing an open records request\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a far cry from\u00a0making\u00a0it\u00a0easily accessible\u00a0to potential employers or from\u00a0proactively notifying\u00a0affected families.<\/p>\n

Underly also\u00a0pledged to support a bill\u00a0defining grooming as a crime\u00a0\u2014 a move\u00a0the department considered<\/a>\u00a0in 2018, when\u00a0now-Gov. Tony\u00a0Evers was\u00a0the DPI head. The agency\u00a0dropped\u00a0the plan\u00a0after\u00a0opposition from teachers unions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Underly\u2019s pledge came after\u00a0the Legislature\u00a0launched an audit<\/a>\u00a0of DPI\u2019s teacher licensing process\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a process\u00a0that\u00a0critics fault for\u00a0making it difficult to enter teaching without\u00a0passing through traditional schools of education.<\/p>\n

Lack of oversight<\/h4>\n

The agency also has come under fire for its oversight\u00a0of\u00a0school districts\u2019 finances.\u00a0Only after Milwaukee Public Schools\u00a0voters\u00a0narrowly agreed to\u00a0raise taxes on themselves<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0on other Wisconsinites<\/a>\u00a0by $252 million a year\u00a0did the district reveal\u00a0that it was\u00a0months late in turning its required financial reports\u00a0in to\u00a0the DPI.\u00a0It was later revealed that the DPI\u00a0\u00a0kept that information from the public<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The scandal\u00a0cost the district\u2019s superintendent his job<\/a>, but later in 2024 it came to light that other districts\u2019 reporting was late, too, and\u00a0lawmakers ordered an audit<\/a>\u00a0of the DPI\u2019s oversight of district finances.\u00a0The results<\/a>:\u00a0Nearly a fourth of school districts were late, problems with their accounting were repeated year after year, and\u00a0the agency was slow to\u00a0review districts\u2019 information.<\/p>\n

In its\u00a0curriculum standards\u00a0role, the agency was\u00a0accused of foot-dragging<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0the Legislature required it to phase out the\u00a0widely used but discredited<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthree-cuing\u201d method of\u00a0teaching reading<\/a>\u00a0in favor of\u00a0phonics.\u00a0A lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0over how the DPI would use money set aside for the effort led to\u00a0a loss<\/a>\u00a0for the agency\u00a0and Evers\u00a0in the state Supreme Court\u00a0last\u00a0June.<\/p>\n

The lack of transparency, meanwhile, extends to the operations of DPI itself.\u00a0The department\u00a0appears to have\u00a0more than\u00a0600 employees,\u00a0but a recent reorganization\u00a0made it difficult to\u00a0ascertain\u00a0exactly what they all do.<\/p>\n

Many, it is clear, are involved in\u00a0dispersing\u00a0federal\u00a0money that flow through the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Department of Education \u2014 another entity whose function and efficacy is being questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal Department of Education furloughed 90 percent of its staff,\u201d\u00a0said Education Secretary Linda McMahon<\/a>\u00a0on Monday\u00a0after the 43-day federal shutdown. \u201cAnd what happened? Nothing. Schools stayed open, students went to class, teachers\u00a0got paid. The shutdown proved our schools don\u2019t depend on Washington bureaucracy to function. If 90 percent of an agency\u00a0supposedly governing\u00a0education can disappear for weeks without disrupting education, do we really need it at all?\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal Department of Education unveiled its first steps Tuesday toward dissolving itself by announcing agreements to hand off<\/a> grant programs to other agencies, with McMahon saying the aim was to \u201creturn education to the states.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Wisconsin,\u00a0the DPI\u2019s string of scandals\u00a0raises the issue with even greater force. If the agency is failing its duties\u00a0to students, parents, teachers\u2019 employers, and taxpayers, the question becomes: Who is served by keeping so much control of education\u00a0out of the hands of Wisconsin communities and families and in the bungling hands of the DPI?<\/p>\n

Jim Bender is an Education Consultant to the Badger Institute and Patrick McIlheran its Director of Policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Any\u202fuse or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u202fpermission.\u202fTo request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute Marketing Director Matt Erdman at\u202f<\/em>matt@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Submit a comment<\/h2>\n

\t\t\t\t#wpforms-55718.wpforms-block-805bcfa4-1df9-4bc6-8527-2e712b453bff {
\n\t\t\t\t–wpforms-button-background-color: #9e1b2f;
\n–wpforms-field-size-input-height: 43px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-input-spacing: 15px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-font-size: 16px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-line-height: 19px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-padding-h: 14px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-checkbox-size: 16px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-sublabel-spacing: 5px;
\n–wpforms-field-size-icon-size: 1;
\n–wpforms-label-size-font-size: 16px;
\n–wpforms-label-size-line-height: 19px;
\n–wpforms-label-size-sublabel-font-size: 14px;
\n–wpforms-label-size-sublabel-line-height: 17px;
\n–wpforms-button-size-font-size: 20px;
\n–wpforms-button-size-height: 48px;
\n–wpforms-button-size-padding-h: 20px;
\n–wpforms-button-size-margin-top: 15px;
\n–wpforms-container-shadow-size-box-shadow: none;
\n\t\t\t}<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/p>\n
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\nName *<\/span><\/legend>\n
\n