Madison… Tuesday, State Senator John Jager (R-Watertown) released legislation for co-sponsorship to restore high academic standards for our K-12 testing protocols. The changes to the student performance standards have been widely panned across the state, including by former State Superintendent, Governor Tony Evers.

“We need to reinstate our high academic standards and strive for excellence on behalf of the students and families we serve.” said Jagler. “These changes were made behind closed doors in advance and revealed only when the test scores were announced. Not surprisingly, the massive uptick in artificial performance gains was confusing at best and misleading at worst. We also lost, because of these changes, the ability to compare performance from previous years.”

The bill, resets the report card standards to levels set in 2019-20, aligns grades 3-8 with national standards set by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and resets high school testing standards to levels set in 2021-22 school year. Governor Evers has taken several opportunities to be critical of the new standards, saying in September, “I think we need to have as high of standards as possible, I don’t think we should be lowering them.”

“Governor Evers has an opportunity in his State of the State Address on Wednesday night to shine a bright light on this issue and call for the standards to be reset,” Jagler said. “Additionally, we should have a process around testing and the report card that forever prohibits a single person from making changes in secrecy.”

Sen. Jagler serves as Chair of the Senate Committee on Education and represents the 13th Senate District covering all or parts of Adams, Columbia, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Jefferson, Marquette, Waushara and Winnebago Counties