MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – The state’s education agency says a political donation had nothing to do with choosing a Minnesota firm to come up with the new statewide achievement exam.
Data Recognition Corporation was hired by the Department of Public Instruction to create a replacement for the Badger Exam.
DRC is headed by former Wisconsin Senate Republican leader Susan Engeleiter. She gave $10,000 last year to Governor Scott Walker’s re-election campaign.
An Engeleiter spokeswoman says the donation came months before the state asked for proposals for the new test. She also says DRC staffers did not talk with Walker or his aides about a contract.
The new statewide test is the third in three years. The online Badger Exam replaced the long-running Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam last spring. That test was scrapped amid technical glitches — plus concerns that it related too much to the Common Core education standards that many Republicans oppose.
DRC, of Maple Grove, was asked to create a shorter and less expensive test. The firm received a 10-year contract worth $63 million.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
