On Tuesday, the DPI announced statewide assessment results for the 2023-24 school year are now available in the WISEdash Public Portal. The department is providing additional context, resources, and information below to help you communicate this release effectively with your community.
Explaining the “Why” and “What” to your communities
What follows are some recommendations on communicating the cut score changes to your community. Please add any additional local context to what is provided to help tell the story in alignment with your community.
- Using grade-level cut scores provides actionable, transparent information to schools and families.
- Our past cut scores were based on a national standard and were not aligned with what Wisconsin teachers were using with students.
- The actual cut scores were recommended by Wisconsin educators.
- A group of nearly 100 educators reviewed scores and state standards to recommend the cut scores we now use.
- Changes to Wisconsin’s academic standards meant the test needed to change as well.
- When we change what we’re asking students to know, we need to also change what we’re assessing them with.
- The update to the test allowed for us to add a distinct reading score, which will be comparable year over year.
- The previous test combined reading results into an English language arts score, making those results more challenging to act on.
- Wisconsin was one of the last states to move away from using national standards to determine cut scores.
- Being one of the last made Wisconsin an outlier, and it made our academic performance look much lower than neighboring states.
- The state assessment is one measure of classroom performance that represents a single point in time for a learner.
- Schools assess students continuously and have data on outcomes that connect across multiple school years that is far more reliable than the statewide test.
- While prior-year comparisons for ELA and mathematics on the Forward are not possible this year due to the update to the scale, there are options for using this data.
- Proficiency levels in results tell families where students performed according to state standards (what they should know at a given grade level).
- Within-year comparisons of student groups, schools and districts are still possible.
- Scales for science and social studies on the Forward have not changed and results in those subjects can be compared to prior years.
Additional Resources for Communicating About Assessments
This past year, in collaboration with education partners, updates were made to the Forward Exam test design, cut scores, and performance level indicators. Previously, test cut scores were aligned to the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) and did not paint an accurate picture of where students were academically when compared to grade-level state standards. The process of aligning the performance standards to the redesigned Forward Exam was necessary and better reflects what students should know at each grade. These updates will provide you with better data to help improve educational outcomes among students.
Because of a new scale for English language arts and mathematics on the Forward, results in those subjects are not comparable to previous years. These results are the first year of a new trend when comparing student performance in future years.
State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly outlined the reason for these needed changes in an editorial published earlier this week. Many of the points referenced in Dr. Underly’s message are helpful in explaining to your community how educators helped align cut scores to Wisconsin Academic Standards. The department’s news release is also a helpful tool to guide conversations about assessments.
Additionally, the DPI has developed several one-page handouts to explain the background of this process in detail:
- Wisconsin Forward Exam Updates: Explains what changed in the test design of the Forward Exam from past years to 2023-24 and moving forward.
- Wisconsin Forward Exam Performance Level Standard Setting: Explains the standard-setting process in which Wisconsin educators helped align cut scores to state standards.
- Updated Asset-Based Performance Levels: Explains an update to terminology used to describe student performance on statewide standardized assessments.
Various additional resources are also available on the DPI’s Office of Educational Accountability webpage, including suggested talking points that help answer questions related to the assessment release and templates for letters to parents/guardians. Visit the OEA’s Data and Reporting Resources webpage for even more information.
If you have further questions, please contact the DPI’s OEA via email at OSAMail.dpi.wi.gov.
How to Use 2023-24 Forward Exam Assessment Data
As noted, results for 2023-24 in ELA and mathematics are not comparable to prior years and are the start of a new trend line. The DPI has developed a guide to explain helpful ways in examining and using assessment data. Some key takeaways on the comparison are:
- Data for ELA and mathematics are comparable for 2023-24 to the rest of the state for the same year. Within-year comparisons of student groups, schools and districts are also possible in these tested subject areas.
- Percentile ranking is also possible: Within a given year, percentile ranks compare a student’s performance with others who took the same test.
- Science and social studies scales have not changed and therefore are comparable to prior years.
Answering Frequently Asked Questions
Finally, the following FAQs may be helpful in answering questions you may be receiving.
Q. What are cut scores?
A. Cut scores are the minimum scores required to meet performance levels for each assessment. The Forward Exam score ranges for each content area were set using a process in which Wisconsin educators were brought together at a standard setting to carefully consider the academic standards, performance level descriptors, and test questions. ACT score ranges are established based on the ACT college-readiness benchmarks, Forward Exam results, other ACT census states’ cut scores, grade level expectations of content knowledge, and ACT research on the performance of Wisconsin students.
A. A standard setting occurs any time a statewide assessment is created, changed, or academic standards have been revised. Revisions to ELA and mathematics standards necessitated a standard setting that took place over the summer. During that multi-day event, a diverse panel of Wisconsin educators gathered to establish descriptions of each performance level and made recommendations for the cut scores necessary to be classified into each level.
For more information on the standard setting, visit the Forward Exam Data and Results webpage and the ACT Data and Results webpage.
A. The standard setting processes that have been used:
- Forward Exam: Bookmark standard setting (educator recommendations from an item- and standards-based process)
- ACT with Writing: Modified briefing book (educator recommendations from a data-based process)
- PreACT Secure: Linear Interpolation (a statistical process conducted by OEA)
For more information on the standard settings, visit the Forward Exam Data and Results webpage and the ACT Data and Results webpage.
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. Visit the Historical Assessments webpage for more information.
A. Every time there are revisions to academic standards (and therefore assessment designs), a corresponding performance standard setting process is required to update cut scores. The Wisconsin Academic Standards are reviewed on a recurring basis. If the standards are revised, the test will typically be updated within three years, and a standard setting will be conducted, usually starting a new trendline.
See the 2024 Wisconsin Forward Exam Performance Standard Setting and the 2024 Wisconsin ACT Performance Standard Setting resources for more information.
A. Revised academic standards in ELA and mathematics required updates to the Forward Exam test design and a corresponding performance standard setting. As a result, ELA and mathematics performance are not directly comparable to previous years.
Given the changes to the standards and test designs, continuing with trendlines that were established close to a decade ago would not provide an accurate picture of current student performance. There are no changes to the Forward Exam science and social studies performance standards, and results for these content areas can be compared to last year.
Previous cut scores were set in 2015 to determine a student’s college readiness in alignment with the WSAS performance levels. As it has been several years since the panelists met to provide initial recommendations and validate cut scores, and since Wisconsin recently updated the Forward Exam cut scores, educators also came together this summer to establish new cut scores for the ACT and PreACT Secure through performance standard settings. Underlying scales and ACT college-readiness benchmarks remain unchanged.
Districts have a variety of other data from local assessments and other sources that can help tell how our students are doing compared to previous years. In addition, using tools like student growth percentiles, growth can still be evaluated across different tests.
For more information refer to How to Use your 2023-24 Assessment Data.
A. Please visit the department website for more information on assessment cut scores: