Recalculated test scores shown different numbers for state schools

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MADISON - Not even half of Wisconsin’s public school students are making-the-grade under a new, tougher formula for scoring the state’s standardized tests. The state refigured the results of last fall’s Knowledge-and-Concepts exam, so it matches the formula for the much-respected National Assessment of Educational Progress.

It showed that only 48-percent of third-through-eighth graders and high school sophomores were proficient-or-better in math. That’s much lower than the 78-percent that was first reported in March. And just 36-percent of those youngsters were proficient-or-better in reading – down from the 82-percent figure reported in March.

The new numbers reflect the tougher student performance standards adopted by the state, as part of a new effort to make schools more accountable. That system freed Wisconsin from what critics called outdated and unrealistic requirements set forth by the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act.

State Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steve Kestell of Elkhart Lake said he’s been trying to warn people for some time that the state’s been looking at its test scores through “rose-colored glasses.” He called the scoring upgrade a quote, “necessary and long-delayed wake-up call for Wisconsin.” State Superintendent Tony Evers says the new scores reflect what students need to know to excel in college and the workplace. Scores for each school are not yet available.

Tags: news, wisconsin, education