Inability to compare limits value of state testing results

It’s harder to chart a way forward when you don’t know where you came from.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently released the latest standardized assessment results, but changed the way students are scored so this year’s results can’t be compared to previous years. The results, released last Wednesday, show that about half of tested students in both public and Private School Choice Programs during the 2023-24 school year are considered proficient in English/language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Specifically, assessment results show public school student proficiency rates in ELA and mathematics were at 48% and 49.4%, respectively, for the Forward Exam.

However, the DPI is quick to note that “scale scores for ELA and mathematics for 2023-24 cannot be directly compared to prior years, as required revisions to the test design and scale took place this past year... These results are the first year of a new trend when comparing student performance in future years.

“Each time there are revisions to academic standards and updates to test designs, a corresponding performance standard-setting process is required to update cut scores. This process last took place for the Forward Exam in 2016,” the press release from the DPI adds. It is frustrating that the DPI continues to move the goalposts by changing the cut scores for standardized assessments every few years. Proponents of this latest change say it helps Wisconsin better match what several other states across the country of varying political persuasions are doing. For example, New York and Oklahoma recently lowered their cut scores.

However, critics of the change say it makes it virtually impossible to compare the 2024 scores to any year before that.

I’m all for making standards clearer and easier to understand, and they should directly correlate to what children are learning in the classroom. However, we shouldn’t lower our standards as a state just to be more in line with other states. And, by eliminating the ability to compare to previous years, it helps the DPI and school districts avoid accountability. It’s similar to the school report cards that the DPI issues every year, in which the DPI gives each school an overall grade based on how well it’s meeting state expectations. However, a person can’t truly compare one local school to another using their report cards, because schools are not scored purely on achievement. They are scored partially on how well they do on closing gaps or, in other words, boosting up the lowest-level learners to higher levels of achievement. Therefore, schools that have a higher percentage of English language learners, for example, can more easily score better on the school report card because they have more ground to gain. Don’t get me wrong, closing gaps is important; it’s just frustrating again when one can’t easily compare districts to each other because they are weighted differently based on demographics.

It also only seems fair that parents be able to get the complete picture and easily compare local school districts so they make an informed decision on where is the best place to educate their child.

All that to say, getting back to the Forward Exam results, even without comparing to other years, last year’s results are pretty dismal on their own. I don’t fault the educators; teachers are up against a lot these days, between student behaviors, cell phone use and cyberbullying, mental health concerns, a lack of parental and/or administrative support, and students coming from home situations that make it hard for them focus at all, let alone learn. So there are a lot of factors and barriers that can keep kids from learning. But somehow, collectively, our education system needs to do better for our kids, because they are our future.

-As reported by CNN, Baby Boomers may be expected to live longer than their predecessors, but a recent study has found that they are more likely to suffer from worse health than previous generations.

Researchers at the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL) found that people born since 1945 have worse health than previous generations at the same age, resulting in what they call a “generational health drift.”

“We found that Baby Boomers are more likely to have doctor-diagnosed diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, and a variety of other chronic health conditions compared to previous generations at the same age,” said Laura Gimeno, a doctoral candidate at UCL and lead author of the study, in an email to CNN. She added that there was also little evidence for improvements in disability rates.

Thestudy,publishedintheJournals of Gerontology, looked at health data collected from more than 100,000 people between 2004 and 2018. The data came from adults aged 51 or older in the United States and those aged 50 or older in England and continental Europe. It covered several generations, including the Greatest Generation (born before1925)andBabyBoomers(bornbetween 1946 and 1959), according to the study.

Across all the regions examined, the prevalence of diabetes and high cholesterol rose at the same rate while diagnoses of cancer, heart problems and high cholesterol increased the most in England and continental Europe. Body mass index (BMI) was also analyzed, with researchers finding that age-adjusted obesity increased across post-war cohorts – except for those in southern Europe.

These study results are worth paying attention to. No one wants to become a statistic. I’ve known individuals who have worked hard their entire life and are now retired, but they can’t really enjoy their retirement because health problems prevent them from doing the things they want to do. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to improve your own health or at least take a step in the right direction.

“The first wealth is health.” – Ancient proverb

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