“DPI cannot lower academic standards in secret and simply expect parents and students to accept the outcome,” IRG General Counsel Jake Curtis said in a statement. “Working groups created by DPI are not exempt from Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Laws. Taxpayers funded this process, but DPI shut them out. A state agency doesn’t get to spend public dollars, make consequential decisions, and then hide the process from public scrutiny.”
The Department of Public Instruction invited 88 education professionals to the session to review and adjust cut scores for the state’s standardized tests. It later adopted lower standards for proficiency in reading and math.
IRG has long maintained that the changes were designed to mask persistently low student performance in Wisconsin public schools. Its complaint does not seek damages but asks the court to invalidate the standards if violations are confirmed. The Department of Public Instruction did not immediately respond to the complaint.
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More on the taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI.