DPI Results Not Apples To Oranges

The Department of Public Instruction released testing results from the Wisconsin Knowledge andConcepts Exam indicating that Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) generally outscored schools that participate in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). Journalists Erin Richards and Amy Hetzner editorialized that these results were an “apples-to-apples achievement comparison” betweenMPS and MPCP. However, it was not an apples-to-apples comparison.

 Test scores are like snapshots of a film; they capture useful data, but using them to judge the quality of a movie is questionable. The Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE), due to its limitations,does not track student progress or graduation rates, both of which are prognosticators for post-college success in the labor market.

Graduation rates are predicated in some sense upon student progress. Parents want the freedom to send their children to schools that accelerate academic potential from the time they enroll to the time they graduate. Yet if parents wish to locate schools entirely on the basis of WKCE test scores, we support their freedom to enroll in schools like East Brook Academy and Notre Dame Middle School.

Hispanics for School Choice supports the decision of parents to find schools using a standard of their own choosing. This includes the right of parents to choose a public school over private schools. To be clear, an apples-to-apples comparison between MPS and MPCP will ultimately include methods to track academic progress and high-school graduation rates. A doctor does not give a diagnosis based on a single symptom.

According to the School Choice Demonstration Project, a full 94% of students that attended high-schools in MPCP for four years graduated as opposed to 75% at MPS. Students in MPCP also are more likely to enroll in a four-year college than MPS students. Until DPI does an assessment of MPCP that includes progress tracking and graduation rates, it’s just an apples-to-oranges comparison.