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WKCE Historical Data and Results

State and Local Proficiency Summaries

1997-98 through 2001-02

State, district and school proficiency summary are available for downloading from this Web page. These are the most complete versions of the WKCE proficiency data available to the public. WKCE local proficiency data file/display options provided at the DPI Website were created using the the data contained in these tab-delimited files. Writing scores and percentile ranks are also available in the proficiency data files for 2001-02 and earlier.

The tab-delimited files are in one zipped self-extracting file for each year. Each self-extracting file is approximately 2 MB.

After downloading, double-click on the file. The zipped file will automatically unzip creating a separate file(s) for the tested grades: grade 4, grade 8, and grade 10. Each grade level file or files is very large because there are over 2,000 public schools and over 400 school districts in Wisconsin. Results by race/ethnicity and other student groups within each school and district are included. Unzipped file sizes range from 2 MB to 10 MB. The more recent files are larger than earlier files because they contain more fields (i.e., more data about each school/district and student group). Grade 4 files tend to be the larger than grade 10 files because there are more elementary schools than high schools.

Due to the number of rows in each file, you will need to select software that can handle up 40,000 rows of data. More recent versions of Excel and Access, for example, can handle files of this size, but older versions cannot.

Historical Proficiency Data Downloads
2001-02 data / See layout
2000-01 data / See layout
1999-00 data / See layout
1998-99 data / See layout
1997-98 data / See layout
  • 60 Second Graphs - Create your own state progress graphs to show longitudinal comparison of proficiency data (1998-2002) by:
    District
    School
    Student Group

* Caution: Proficiency data for 2001-02 and earlier years are NOT comparable to proficiency data for 2002-03 and later years. See related question and answer document.

Disaggregated State Proficiency Summary Reports - These reports provide percents of students enrolled statewide who scored in each of the proficiency categories. Results are provided for all students enrolled and are sorted by gender, race, and other student groups.(75K, Excel 5.0/95 format)


Proficiency Score Standards:

Content Area Proficiency Score by Years
Reading 1997-2002
Mathematics 1997-2002
Science 1997-2002
Language Arts 1997-98, 1998-02
Writing 1997-2002
Social Studies 1997-2002
TerraNova 1997-2002
TerraNova 1997

Wisconsin Proficiency Score Standards Setting Final Summary Report (1997)

Percentages for the nationwide sample are based on the number of students tested. Percent "Not Tested" is unavailable for this group. Beginning in 2002-03, Wisconsin has used a combination of off-the-shelf national test items and customized test items to improve alignment between the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE) and Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards. This change was required by the No Child Left Behind Act. Since customized items are not nationally normed, beginning in 2002-03 national sample proficiency data are not available.

Demographic data contained in these files are the data reported by school districts and were not audited by the testing contractor or the Department of Public Instruction. In order to reduce the data collection burden, default demographic codes were used when student data were hand-gridded if the vast majority of students statewide were in a specific demographic category. For example, districts were only required to hand-grid data for "students with disabilities." All students not marked as students with disabilities were automatically coded "nondisabled." No default codes were used for race/ethnicity. Missing race/ethnicity codes were reported as "missing."


Writing Score Frequency Distribution by Student Group: (Grades 4, 8, and 10)


For additional information about this information contact Phil Cranley.