In Madison, Wisconsin, Friday saw Democratic Governor Tony Evers veto a proposed bill from Republicans that aimed to mandate the state’s education authorities to revert to an outdated method of scoring standardized student tests.
Jill Underly, the Superintendent of schools, who tends to lean liberal, took steps last year to revise the benchmarks and scoring standards for these tests, citing input from Wisconsin teachers on their students’ potential as the motivation behind these adjustments. Her opponent in the upcoming election is conservative Brittany Kinser.
Republicans have contended that these changes compromised the rigor of the standards, suggesting they were altered to falsely boost performance metrics, making it challenging to measure Wisconsin students and school districts against their peers nationally. While Governor Evers did criticize the lack of public engagement on Underly’s decision, legislative records affirm that he ultimately blocked the bill on Friday morning.
In his veto explanation, Evers mentioned his objection was partly due to legislative interference with the state superintendent’s independence and jurisdiction. Before his current position, Evers himself served as the state schools superintendent, a role he held before becoming governor in 2019.
The proposed legislation sought to align the performance assessments with levels established by the National Assessment of Educational Process, specifically for the Wisconsin Forward exam, a critical standardized test for English and math. Moreover, it intended for terms used in the 2021-22 school year to describe student performance on other tests like the PreACT and ACT with Writing, encompassing areas such as English, Reading, and Mathematics. Categorization labels like “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” and “advanced” were to be adopted.
Currently, the Department of Public Instruction’s language for student performance is “advanced,” “meeting,” “approaching,” and “developing.” Additionally, the department would have been required to adopt the same scoring system for school report cards as used in the 2019-20 school year under this bill.