2026 State Test Score Results Data Series
The 2026 State Test Score Results Data Series is published by the Education Data Center and is designed to provide updates on 2026 state assessment data.
What to expect: Our goal is to provide high-level insights on ELA and math state summative assessment outcomes for students in grades 3-8. We will publish overviews as State Education Agencies (SEAs) publicly release assessment results and/or as we receive aggregate results via public records requests.
For additional information about each state assessment, please see the end of this post. All available 2026 assessment data used for this data series will be published by the EDC in December.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Let us know at info@eddatacenter.org!
Trends Over Time
Yesterday (Oct 1), the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released the 2026 results from the state’s standardized ELA and math assessments for Grades 3-8, the Forward Exam. This is the third year of the current Forward Exam, which began in 2024 aligned to the state’s 2020 ELA and 2021 math standards, along with new cut scores. We include results prior to 2024 in figures below to provide an understanding of general trends, with the caveat that earlier results are not directly comparable to 2024+. Our results below are specific to results in Grades 3-8 on the Forward Exam in public schools, so they differ from DPI’s overall rates (48.4% ELA and 48.7% math), which include Grades 3-11, all state tests, private Choice-school students, and students who did not test.
In 2026, State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly reported that “Wisconsin students continue to make steady progress, and we should be proud of that progress. At the same time, we know too many students are still not where they need to be.”
A brief look at outcomes by subject:
ELA: Approximately 54.1% of students in Grades 3-8 reached proficiency in 2026, up from 52.8% in 2025 (+1.3 percentage points). This included gains across five of six grade levels, led by Grade 5 (+2.4pp) and Grade 7 (+1.7pp); Grade 3 was the exception, remaining essentially flat on ELA (note that the reading subscore within the ELA assessment did increase, but not ELA overall for Grade 3). Among districts with at least 100 students, Green Lake had the greatest growth between 2025 and 2026 (+11.3pp), while Fox Point J2 had the highest rate in the state for these grade levels (91.7%). Girls lead boys in ELA by about 8.5pp (58.4% to 49.9%), down from a gap of 10.0pp in 2024.
Math: Proficiency rates largely held steady in 2026 for students in Grades 3-8, moving from 53.8% to 53.7% between 2025 and 2026. Math proficiency fell across Grades 3-5, with gains in each of Grades 6, 7, and 8; however, the changes were less than 1 point in every grade except Grade 4. Among districts with at least 100 students, Swallow led the state in math proficiency (92%), while Potosi led the state in greatest growth from 2025 to 2026 (+12.1pp). Boys outperform girls in math by 4.5pp (55.9% to 51.4%), compared to a gap of 3.1pp in 2024; in 2026, boys’ math rate held steady while girls’ fell slightly.
Madison showed gains in both ELA (+1.1pp to 49.8%) and math (+2.3pp to 46.4%). The state’s largest school district, Milwaukee, improved in both ELA (+1.5pp to 25.7%) and math (+0.8pp to 20.6%).
Results by Achievement Level
A Closer Look at 2026
State Assessment Background
Assessment Name: Wisconsin Forward Exam (2016-2023; re-designed in 2024 with a new scale and cut scores)
Additional Information:
General assessment resources can be found here: https://dpi.wi.gov/wisedash/about-data/forward
Assessment results are available from the Wisconsin DPI here: https://dpi.wi.gov/wisedash/public/download-files
The 2026 state press release can be found here: content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/WIDPI-42d4f98
Data presented here are specific to this state’s assessment and are not comparable to assessments administered by other states. For questions, please reach out to info@eddatacenter.org.
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