Milwaukee school leaders have found limited ways to utilize last year’s Forward Exam results, which reflect higher scores than expected but pose a challenge for making year-to-year comparisons. The Forward Exam is a statewide standardized assessment that K-12 students in Wisconsin take each year. In June, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction announced that it
Milwaukee school leaders have found limited ways to utilize last year’s Forward Exam results, which reflect higher scores than expected but pose a challenge for making year-to-year comparisons.
The Forward Exam is a statewide standardized assessment that K-12 students in Wisconsin take each year.
In June, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction announced that it would begin using new terminology for the academic performance levels on standardized test scores. The terms “advanced,” “proficient,” “basic” and “below basic” have been renamed to “advanced,” “meeting,” “approaching” and “developing.”
With the terminology changes came new cut scores for these academic performance levels for both the Forward Exam and the ACT, a national test widely used to determine college and career readiness. The Forward Exam results for math and English Language Arts (ELA) are now reported on a four-digit score scale. These portions of the test were previously on a three-digit score scale. The change in scaling makes the most recent results incomparable to previous years. When DPI released the Forward Exam results for the 2023-‘24 school year in October, scores were generally higher across the board.
“So let me be blunt: we are not lowering our standards; rather, we are reflecting actual student results using Wisconsin’s strong academic standards,” state superintendent Jill Underly said in an Oct. 8 news release.
DPI reviews the state’s standards every seven years in communication with educators. The ELA and math portions of the Forward Exam itself were also updated beginning with the 2023-‘24 test.
For more than 10 years, Wisconsin standardized test cut scores were aligned with the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam. DPI broke away from that alignment because “proficiency levels on this national test are considered an extremely high standard to meet, beyond grade-level knowledge,” Underly said in the news release.
[caption id="attachment_607114" align="alignleft" width="300"] Jill Underly, state superintendent[/caption]
However, City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit working to improve the city’s education system, has argued against DPI’s changes, saying the 2023-’24 scores “are not directly comparable to past years’ results, and they make it more difficult for stakeholders to identify trends and answer important questions.”
“How well are students recovering from pandemic-era school closures and disruptions to learning? What is the impact of implementing Act 20, Wisconsin’s Right to Read literacy bill? We don’t know this year because of DPI’s decision to lower standards,” CFC said in an October data brief.
The changes last year came as a surprise to some local educators, who often look to Forward Exam results as a tool to compare students’ year-to-year academic performance. Those results are also a component of the annual DPI report cards, which came out in November. Milwaukee Public Schools, public charter schools and private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program receive a report card each year. The usefulness of the accountability measure varies from school to school.
In Milwaukee Public Schools’ 2024 State Assessment Results report, the district notes “larger than expected increases in the percentage of students meeting expectations” on the Forward Exam. The district also found the scale score change to the Forward Exam restricted the ability to analyze growth.
According to a CFC data brief on the Forward Exam results, statewide ELA scores increased 9.3 percentage points and math scores increased 12.4 percentage points. This is compared to the 2.8 and 1.2 percentage point increases in ELA and math in 2023, which were previously considered significant changes.
While many schools have seen higher scores as a result of DPI’s cut score changes, many Milwaukee schools still fall below state averages on the Forward Exam.
According to DPI’s Forward Exam data, 51.1% of Wisconsin students scored “meeting” or “advanced” in ELA and 53.2% scored “meeting” or “advanced” in math. But at Milwaukee Public Schools district and authorized charter schools, only 23.4% of students scored “meeting” or “advanced” in ELA and 19.2% scored “meeting” or “advanced” in math.
Making comparisons
Many educators were unaware that DPI’s changes would be taking place, so they were unable to prepare for the lack of “data that we depend on to adequately show our improvements from year-to-year,” said Anthony McHenry, chief executive officer of Milwaukee Academy of Science.
“As a result of that, we look at this with great skepticism as to whether it was the right thing to do,” McHenry said. “We wonder about the why behind it. I happen to be a part of a group that did meet with someone from DPI who said that the change was in order to better align with the national standards, which may be true. But because that was not told to the masses, including school leaders, as (DPI was) moving in this direction, our response is going to be somewhere between skepticism and complete frustration that this change took place.”
DPI’s changes establish a baseline for future years and require schools like MAS to further rely on internal assessments for analysis on student academic performance, McHenry said.
“We understand that while we hope to be progressing year to year, the size of jumps is not reflective of what we see in schools,” McHenry said. “The change in the cut scores certainly impacted the schools positively in terms of higher proficiency scores, et cetera, but negatively in terms of our being able to use this data for any real meaningful way.”
Milwaukee schools widely consider other forms of assessment in addition to the Forward Exam when looking to analyze student academic performance. Besides internal assessments, many schools require MAP testing for students. Shifting greater focus to year-to-year MAP testing results is one way educators are navigating the Forward Exam changes at a time when schools are working to regain student learning loss post-COVID.
“It presents an issue,” said Al Keith, CEO of Milwaukee College Prep. “However, we have to rise to the occasion and figure out how to best accurately assess where we’ve made gains.”
While St. Augustine Preparatory Academy CEO Abby Andrietsch said there is an inability to make year-to-year comparisons, she also has been able to use the Forward Exam results to see how Aug Prep stacks up against other schools in Milwaukee and across the state.
For example, 52% of Aug Prep’s students in grades three to eight scored “meeting” or “advanced” in ELA, about a percentage point above the state average. Fifty-one percent of Aug Prep’s students in grades three to eight scored “meeting” or “advanced” in math, which is about two percentage points below the state average. Of Aug Prep’s eighth grade students, 61% scored “meeting” or “advanced” in ELA, compared to 48% statewide.
“As we look at data, I don’t think we’ve arrived,” Andrietsch said. “We are still on a journey. … A much more important comparison for us is that state level versus just what’s going on in Milwaukee.”
Comparing city, statewide Forward Exam results from year to year
[caption id="attachment_607112" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Recent changes to Forward Exam assessment standards has made comparisons to past years’ results difficult. This chart also shows the widening gap between students in Milwaukee and the rest of the state. Source: City Forward Collective[/caption]
Setting the bar
Many Milwaukee school leaders disapprove of lowering academic performance standards for students. DPI says it has not changed state academic standards but has aligned its achievement benchmarks with those state standards.
Marquette University High School administers only the social studies portion of the Forward Exam to its sophomore students, as that satisfies the state requirement for private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Last year, 35 MUHS sophomores took the test – 66% of them received “meeting” or “advanced” scores. In total, MUHS had 122 students, or about 13.6% of MUHS’ student body, participating in the MPCP last year.
Jeff Monday, principal of Marquette University High School, said while DPI’s Forward Exam changes “really hasn’t impacted” MUHS, he reflected on the issue “more as it relates to the state of education in Wisconsin.”
“It looks better for us as a state, but I don’t think it serves our students well to respond by lowering standards and re-labeling the thresholds to make us more comfortable in terms of our students’ overall performance,” said Monday.
Regarding DPI’s changes to the ACT score thresholds assigned to academic performance levels, Monday pointed out that this creates a category of students who are considered proficient by state standards, but do not meet the ACT’s “college ready” benchmark. Monday said MUHS has “very few students” falling in that category, as MUHS juniors achieved an average ACT score of 25.6 last year.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to say that they’re proficient but not ready for the rigors of higher education,” Monday said. “It’s doing a disservice to the students in our state by saying that, yes, they’re on target, but no, they’re not ready for college.”
For example, for a student taking the ACT to be considered “college ready” in ELA, they must receive a score of 20 on that portion of the exam. By new Wisconsin standards, a score of 19 in ELA would be considered “meeting” expectations.
Andrew Stith, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, also disapproved of lowering expectations for students. He said it’s important to “hold the bar high” and simultaneously provide students with the support they need to reach that bar.
“I don’t think it’s helpful whenever we’re saying to students, ‘We don’t expect as much of you,’” Stith said. “I think it’s underestimating the potential of the young people that we serve.”
Keith said he understands arguments both for and against DPI’s changes. He does not believe the DPI’s change in academic measures will change MCP’s expectations for its students, but he pointed to the “educational crisis going on in the city of Milwaukee.”
“Literacy (among Milwaukee students) is alarmingly low, so is this shift and change in academic standards on the Forward, is it going to help or harm that effort?” Keith said.
Getting kids in seats
[caption id="attachment_607115" align="alignleft" width="300"] Anthony McHenry, CEO, Milwaukee Academy of Science[/caption]
Many of Milwaukee’s K-12 students are considered economically disadvantaged. For a student navigating poverty, getting to school and attending class – and ultimately scoring well on standardized tests – may be a challenge. Chronic absenteeism has also emerged as a prominent issue since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don’t believe that poverty is an indicator of whether kids can learn,” McHenry said. “We fully believe kids, including our kids that are in and out of homelessness, will learn at Milwaukee Academy of Science. The challenge is how poverty impacts kids’ ability to access quality education.”
At MAS, hundreds of students miss 30 to 40 days of school each year, McHenry said. Ninety-seven percent of MAS students are economically disadvantaged, and on any given day more than 100 students are considered homeless.
MAS spends upwards of $1.8 million per year to provide citywide transportation for more than 1,100 students across 27 zip codes. In addition to buses, MAS sends out two vans each morning to pick up kids who have moved in the past two weeks and have not yet been routed to their new buses.
“If we did not provide this school bus transportation, it is highly unlikely, not only that these kids would be able to come to school, but it’s highly unlikely that they would stay at Milwaukee Academy of Science,” McHenry said. “And so that’s the main reason (why MAS does this). As kids and families are moving from house to house, we want to make sure that we continue to serve those kids.”
Considering growth
MCP aims to “serve the underserved,” said Keith, who pointed to the achievement gap that exists for Black students across the city and the nation.
“We do focus on making sure that we are attacking and closing that opportunity and achievement gap for our kids, which we all know will benefit not just those kids, those families, these communities, but it’ll benefit our city as well,” Keith said.
At Aug Prep, 85.9% of all students are economically disadvantaged, and 91.2% of students are Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2023-‘24 DPI report card. Based on results from the MAP assessment, Andrietsch found that returning Aug Prep students generally received higher scores than students who were new to the school. For example, 47% of K-8 students new to Aug Prep fell below the 25th percentile in reading, compared to 19% of returning Aug Prep students who scored in that category.
“The 85% that are economically disadvantaged certainly have challenges in life that are real,” Andrietsch said. “They have barriers that they overcome, but we know that it doesn’t make them less capable. And the question is, how do we do our work to open that opportunity for them?”
Bringing students’ performance on standardized tests up to grade level can demonstrate their growth, which is a contributing factor of a school’s score on the annual DPI report cards. Priority areas, such as growth or achievement, receive different weighted percentages that determine a school’s score. For schools with a population of 65% economically disadvantaged students, the 2023-‘24 report cards weighed achievement from 5-5.3% and growth from 45-48%.
Alternatively, for schools serving a smaller population of economically disadvantaged students, achievement is weighted at 28.8% and growth is weighted at 21.2%.
Carmen Schools of Science & Technology places particular emphasis on the growth metric of the DPI report cards, said chief schools officer Nikki Miller. Carmen South High School, Carmen’s flagship campus, received a growth score of 73.6 on the new DPI report card. Receiving an achievement score of 36.3, a target group outcomes score of 70 and an on-track to graduation score of 83.7, the school “exceeds expectations” with an overall score of 72.7.
“A lot of our goal setting is thinking about where students are and how do we grow them up to make sure that over time, we’re closing gaps,” Miller said. “It’s exciting to see the growth that we’ve made there, and we know that we have work to do to be able to match the state at the achievement levels.”
MUHS similarly “exceeds expectations” with a score of 78.4 on the 2023-‘24 report card. The school’s achievement score reached 85.2.
“But that is only 5% of the weighting that’s given to the overall report card score,” Monday said. “Our students are higher achieving, so the weight is placed on more growth than it is on achievement. Because our students are achieving at a high level, there’s less capacity for growth than if they were low achieving.”
Stith said it’s difficult to see schools with significantly lower proficiency rates scored as “significantly exceeds expectations” because it diminishes achievement.
“That’s a challenge that we have with how the weighting is set up,” Stith said. “It seems to have diminished achievement. And we think that achievement does matter and should matter, as does growth.”
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