Thursday, April 23, 2015

Assembly Republicans Announce Plans for Badger Exam

Assembly Republicans held a press conference this morning to announce their plans for addressing challenges with the implementation of the smarter balanced assessment, also known as the Badger Exam, which they compared to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.  Assembly leaders say they want to make sure that performance data from the test, which many students have opted out of,  is not used for school or teacher evaluations.

Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) said the Assembly Committee on Education will vote on Assembly Bill 78 next week and expect the bill to be voted on by the full Assembly shortly thereafter.  The Senate passed their version of the bill  unanimously in March.

AB 78 would prohibit the Department of Public Instruction from issuing a school accountability report for the 2014−15 school year and delays the educator effectiveness evaluations for teachers and principals until the 2015-16 school year. Both of these evaluations would have included performance data from the smarter balanced assessment.

Governor Walker’s proposed state budget would also prohibit the use of the smarter balanced assessment in Wisconsin.


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