Wisconsin: A Parent’s Guide to Standards and Assessment

Parents of school-age children find that some things have remained the same since they went to school and that some things have changed. In the last 20 years, schools have experienced many changes in “academic standards,” “curriculum,” and “assessment.” What exactly do these terms mean? How are they connected? How can parents help children do well in school? In this brochure, the term “parent” also refers to the child’s primary caregiver(s), such as grandparents or other adults who have primary responsibility for the child.

What Are Academic Standards?

A governor’s appointed task force developed Wisconsin’s Model Academic Standards to encourage a higher level of learning from all public school students. Task force members included legislators, educators, business people, and parents. The standards describe the skills children should have and the things they should know by the end of grades 4, 8, and 12.

Each subject a child learns about in school is divided into content standards that tell what students should know and be able to do. Each subject is also divided into performance standards that tell how students will show they meet the content standards. Finally, a third type of standard—proficiency standards that tell how well students have learned the content—has been developed for the five subjects covered in statewide tests. Many parents are most interested in the proficiency standards because schools report these standards to parents. Proficiency standards exist for mathematics, science, social studies, reading, and language arts. Model academic standards have also been developed for 14 other subjects not covered by the state tests: agricultural education, business education, dance education, environmental education, family and consumer education, foreign languages, health education, information and technology literacy, marketing education, music education, physical education, technology education, theatre education, and visual arts education.

A complete listing of standards for all subjects is available on the DPI Standards Home Page at
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/ or by checking with your school principal.

What is the Curriculum?

The curricula used in your child’s classroom prepare your child to meet the standards. The standards define what children will learn at certain points in time and what performances are accepted as evidence that the child has learned. Parents can get more specific information about the connections among the academic standards, the curriculum, and the tests in their school district from their children’s teachers, the school principal, or the guidance counselor. The DPI website at http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/ also explains these connections. Schools should welcome parents’ questions about and interest in the curriculum, state standards, and tests. The stronger the home-school connection is at all levels, the more prepared children are to meet the standards.

How do academic standards connect to the curriculum in your child’s classroom?

School boards may either adopt Wisconsin’s Model Academic Standards or develop and adopt their own. Most school boards have adopted the model standards. Teaching, learning, and testing ought to connect to the academic standards. Each day, classroom teachers refer to a plan, called a curriculum, which outlines what a child should learn day-to-day in the classroom. The curriculum consists of activities and lessons at each grade level, instructional materials, and teaching techniques. Every school year, children deepen their knowledge of a subject by learning new concepts based upon what they learned in the past. Children learn differently. Some enjoy learning by reading or examining things. Others learn best by listening to someone speak. And some learn most when they can use their hands or bodies. A curriculum should use a number of ways to ensure that the learning styles and needs of all children in the classroom are met.

What is Assessment?

How is a Child’s Learning Progress Measured?

Schools use many ways to assess, or measure, the progress of students: homework completion, class projects, portfolios, unit tests, and student effort. Another way to measure student progress statewide is with state tests. In Wisconsin, the state Department of Public Instruction develops and administers statewide examinations to measure children’s learning in five subject areas: