Senate Committee Recommends Passage of CRT Bill
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | November 30, 2021
The Senate Education Committee voted along party lines yesterday to advance legislation that proponents say would ban the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 schools.The committee voted via paper ballot 4-3 to advance SB 411 and AB 411. All Republicans on the committee supported the bills, while all Democrats were opposed.AB 411 cleared the Assembly in September. The legislation prohibits race or sex stereotyping in 1) instruction provided to pupils; 2) training provided to school employees. The bill provides for the withholding of up to 10% of state aid and allows for parents/guardians to bring legal claims against districts for violations. It also requires school boards to post all curricula used in the district and provide a printed copy of curriculum at no cost to the requester. The SAA strongly opposes this legislation.
On October 4th, the SAA posted the complete testimony of Representative Chuck Wichgers (R-Muskego) on Assembly Bill 411. Representative Wichgers is the Assembly author of the bill. I forwarded his testimony simply to give SAA members a little taste of the current political environment inside the Capitol. At that time, I recommended that SAA members pay particular attention to the addendum to Representative Wichgers testimony in which he lists about 80 terms that, in his estimation, educators could no longer discuss in class if this bill were to become law. If you haven’t already done so, I urge you to check it out.
Stay tuned. We will keep you apprised of any developments on this issue.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
Evers Vetoes GOP Redistricting Maps
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | November 18, 2021
From WisPolitics.com …Gov. Tony Evers today vetoed GOP proposals to revamp Wisconsin’s legislative and congressional boundaries, all but ensuring the courts will draw the maps for the 2022 elections.The move was widely expected after Evers had called on GOP lawmakers to start over after they released plans that would help lock in their majorities in the state Legislature.In a video statement, Evers called the GOP maps “gerrymandering 2.0.”See the release here.
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
School Report Cards Released for the 2020-21 School Year
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | November 17, 2021
From The Wheeler Report…
The Department of Public Instruction released the public and choice school and school district report cards for the 2020-21 school year today. The report is released with a cautionary statement, “Both federal and state law require DPI to annually release accountability reports, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these report requirements were suspended for the 2019-20 school year. Because of ongoing pandemic impacts, the U.S. Department of Education again waived federal Every Student Succeeds Act accountability requirements for 2020-21 school year data. However, the Wisconsin State Legislature did not grant another suspension. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DPI urges using caution when interpreting scores and ratings.”
According to the DPI release, 2,101 public schools, 376 choice schools and 421 school districts received report cards for 2020-21. However, 199 public schools and 240 choice schools did not have enough available data to receive scored report cards. The results showed:
- 1,781 schools met, exceeded, or significantly exceeded expectations (3 stars or higher) (approximately 72% of the schools with enough data for a report card)
- 399 school districts met, exceeded, or significantly exceeded expectations (3 stars or higher) (approximately 95% of the school districts with enough data for a report card).
Report card scores are calculated based on four priority areas:
- Achievement
- Students’ level of knowledge and skills attained compared against state academic standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics
- Growth
- How rapidly students are gaining knowledge and skills from year to year, focusing on the pace of improvement in students’ performance.
- Target Group Outcomes
- Outcomes for students with the lowest test scores in their school – the Target Group. Outcomes are displayed for achievement, growth, chronic absenteeism, and attendance or graduation rate.
- On-Track to Graduation
- How successfully students are achieving educational milestones that predict later success.
Each of these areas is given a score of 0 to 100, then those scores are combined using a weighting scheme which produced a weighted average Overall Score. The weighting for the achievement and Growth varies depending on the percent of economically disadvantaged (ECD) students in the schools. In most instances, the weighting for Target Group Outcomes and On-Track have equal weight (25%0, but they can vary if there is no Targe Group Outcomes score. The resulting final overall score, the rating, and stars are what are then reported on the front page of the report card.
New to the report cards this year is the Target Group Outcomes, which replaced the Closing Gaps priority area. According to DPI, the Closing Gaps priority area was designed to focus on closing statewide achievement gaps for students from traditionally marginalized populations. However, “Over the last few years, some issues with this priority area became clear. Scores for small schools could see large fluctuations year-to-year, with score swings largely influenced by changes in student population, rather than changes in student performance. Additionally, The Office of Educational Accountability (OEA) heard from school and district staff that while gap closure is an important focus the calculations were overly complex, making it difficult to convey a clear data story to the public.” The new category – Target Group Outcomes addresses both of those issues; a DPI paper says it does the following:
- To increase stability of scores year-to-year, this priority area focuses on a single target group of students, composed of students in roughly the bottom quartile (25%) of performance based on the prior year’s assessment results. As a result, schools are unlikely to see large shifts in this priority area score due to changes in student population alone. It will also be less common for a school to see changes in whether or not this priority area is scored from one year to the next.
- To make the meaning of this data clearer, the complicated scoring structure used in the Closing Gaps priority area is being replaced with a multiple measure system. This scoring system calculates measures familiar from other priority areas – achievement, value-added growth, chronic absenteeism, and attendance or graduation rates. The same calculation methods are used, but applied only to students in the target group, creating a “mini report card” for the group. In addition to better facilitating data storytelling, this approach further contributes to score stability by using measures that fluctuate less year-to-year.
Course and program data are reported by schools and districts, this is the first time DPI included the data on report cards. The schools are required to provide the following information:
- The number and percentage of pupils participating in early college credit
- The number and percentage pf pupils participating in a youth apprenticeship.
- The number of community service hours provided by pupils.
- The number of advanced placement courses offered to and the number of advanced placement credits earned by pupils.
- The number of pupils earning industry-recognized credentials through a technical education program established by a school board.
- High school students in music, dance, drama, and visual arts.
2020-21 Report Card At-a-Glance
What’s New for the 2020-21 School and District Report Cards?
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
SAA Opposes GOP Bond Referendum Bill
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | October 7, 2021
The SAA testified in opposition to Assembly Bill 475, relating to requiring including estimated interest and interest rate in a referendum question for issuing bonds, at a public hearing yesterday before the Assembly Committee on Government Accountability and Oversight. If you should have any questions or comments about the SAA’s position on the bill, please contact the SAA. Many thanks to Allison Buchanan, Public Finance Partner at Quarles & Brady, for preparing a fabulous memo for the SAA summarizing her concerns about AB 475 from a bond counsel perspective. Check out the SAA testimony and Attorney Buchanan’s memo linked below.
Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
SAA Opposes Reading Bill in Senate Committee
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | October 7, 2021
The SAA testified in opposition to Senate Bill 454, relating to reading readiness assessments, at a public hearing yesterday before the Senate Committee on Education. See the SAA testimony linked below. If you should have any questions or comments about the SAA’s position on the bill, please contact the SAA.
Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »