By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
For the second time in two years, Wisconsin schools will be preparing for a new state assessment exam.
After numerous problems with the Badger Exam last year, the state announced that it would be replacing it as part of the biennial budget process.
Late last week, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction announced its plan to contract with Data Recognition Corporation for the development, administration and report of results for the new Wisconsin Forward Exam.
It is expected to be shorter, cost less than the Badger Exam, be administered online and – according to the press release – have Wisconsin educators involved in both the test development and review.
Contingent on successful contract negotiations, the exam would be given to students this coming spring. It will test students in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8 as well as science in grades 4, 8 and 10.
High school students will continue to take the ACT suite of exams.
Burlington Area School District Superintendent Peter Smet wasn’t surprised by the news, and said he hopes this exam will be around longer.
“I would think it would be around longer than the Badger Exam,” Smet said.
Waterford Graded Schools Superintendent Ed Brzinski admitted it’s been a frustrating year considering the issues with the Badger Exam and now the switch from it.
“As educators, we spent so many years preparing for the Badger Exam,” Brzinski said. “It seems to me so much of that preparation is gone.”
Brzinski said the Badger Exam needed more work. It was based on a great concept, he pointed out, and disposing of it may have been premature.
Now he’s concerned about having a new exam ready in time.
“I am a little apprehensive that we’re going to have a new exam created in six months,” Brzinski said. “I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the Forward Exam is ready to go when they say it will be.”
Regardless, Brzinski said the Waterford students would be ready.
Tom Johnson, Principal at Union Grove Elementary School, said his District Assessment Coordinator Sloan Allen met with other coordinators this week.
“Education is always evolving,” Johnson said. “How are we assessing? Are we assessing too much?
“I think our staff has done a very good job rolling with the different assessments,” he added.
Johnson also said he was pleased that the DPI is doing away with the Wisconsin Knowledge Concept Exams, or WKCEs.
He’s hoping the new Forward exam will provide quick results for schools to examine the data.
That data could be used “to kind of drive instruction,” Johnson said. “Where’s our strengths, where’s our weaknesses.”
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