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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Roughly 42 percent of students are proficient in English and math according to data from the state’s new standardized tests administered to students throughout the state.

Roughly 42 percent of students are proficient in English and math according to data from the state’s new standardized tests administered to students throughout the state.

New standardized tests show 42 percent of students are proficient

Roughly 42 percent of high school students performed at proficient or higher levels in their studies, according to data from Wisconsin Forward Exam released Tuesday.

This comes after recent ACT scores released Monday by the state Department of Public Instruction showed public school juniors slightly improved their overall score from 20 to 20.1.

The Wisconsin Forward Exam is the newest statewide achievement test. About 100 Wisconsin educators met in Madison this summer to create the scoring categories of advanced, proficient, basic or below basic.

Four in 10 students have passed the new exam that’s designed to provide information about what students know in core academic areas such as social science, science, mathematics and English.

About 383,000 pupils took the exam in spring 2016. More than 13,000 of those pupils are private school students in the Milwaukee, Racine and statewide voucher programs.

The Forward Exam replaced the one-time administered Badger Exam, which was created to modernize the outdated Wisconsin Knowledge and Concept Examination. Since the Badger Exam had such a short testing period, results of the Forward Exam will not be placed in comparison.

The results of the Forward Exam demonstrate the work of students in third through eighth grades in English and language arts and math. Students in fourth and eighth grade are also tested on science and social studies.

According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, about 41 percent of juniors were at least proficient in English this year, down from almost 46 percent in the 2014-2015 school year.

Since the Forward Exam is the third exam implemented in the past three years, long-term achievement assessments will not be possible until the exam is in place for multiple years.

Wisconsin also administers a statewide American College Testing Program, more commonly known as the ACT, to high school juniors. Juniors in public high schools were shown to perform at the same math level as the 2015 scores and slightly worse in English in 2016, dropping from a score of 19.3 in 2015 to 18.6 this year.

“Using the ACT as a statewide assessment provides an opportunity for our high school juniors to demonstrate their level of knowledge against college-ready expectations,” said State Superintendent Tony Evers. “Increased participation is a positive result, and in some cases opens doors for further education that students and their parents may not have been considering.”

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