Sun Prairie staff will ask board to seek DPI waiver defining tie-breaking for Wisconsin Act 95

Sun Prairie Area School District administrators said they will ask the school board on March 10 to approve filing a waiver with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction that would allow the district to use a set of tie-breaking criteria when assigning Act 95 “top 5%” and “top 10%” transcript notations.

The request is intended to address uncertainty about how districts should resolve ties and how to apply rounding after the Wisconsin Guaranteed Admission Law (Act 95) went into effect. Dr. Kurt Mould, director of digital media, innovation and strategy, summarized the law at a staff presentation: "Act 95 or the Wisconsin Guaranteed Admission Law was signed into law and it established that the Board of Regents at the University of Wisconsin system must establish a guaranteed admission program that would directly admit students in the top 5% to the University of Wisconsin Madison and students in the top 10% of their class to any of the other UW system colleges or universities based solely on GPA."

The district previously implemented procedure JIR3 with a practice of rounding up to maximize the number of students receiving the guaranteed-admission notation. Administrators said state guidance later made clear districts must break GPA ties and cannot submit more than the whole-number 5% or 10% of a class for guaranteed admission, effectively requiring districts to round down when the percentage does not equal a whole number. Kurt Mould said that guidance came after the district had already applied its earlier rounding practice and that the Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance helped coordinate clarity with the UW System and DPI.

Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Leonard (assistant superintendent for teaching, learning and equity) outlined the district’s recommended tie-breaking criteria the staff will ask DPI to approve if the board okays the waiver application: first, total high school credits earned at the end of six semesters; second, number of Advanced Placement or dual-credit courses listed in the district course guide or college/university credits earned through Start College Now or the Early College Credit Program at the end of six semesters; and third, ACT score on the junior-year spring state assessment. Leonard said, "We recommend that we begin with the first criteria of the number of high school credits earned by the students at the end of 6 semesters. If that doesn't break the tie, we would move to item 2... and then finally... the ACT score on the junior year spring state assessment."

Leonard also emphasized that the district is not changing its internal class-rank calculation: "First and foremost, we are not making a change in the way we do the Sun Prairie Area School District class rank. On every student's transcript, they would have a class rank calculated through procedure IKD." The staff proposal would add a second, separate notation on transcripts for students who qualify under Act 95 ("top 5% for Act 95" or "top 10% for Act 95"); those notations are entered manually on transcripts, administrators said.

Administrators noted other unresolved statewide issues, such as how to handle students from competency-based systems that do not generate GPAs (those schools may need waivers) and how to treat dually enrolled or early-graduate students. The district said those matters do not have immediate impact on Sun Prairie because the district transcribes dual-enrollment coursework with GPA credit and has not had students graduate prior to the end of their junior year.

If the board votes to proceed, the district will submit the waiver request to DPI; staff also plan to update district procedures JIR3 and IKD to reflect the DPI expectations and the district’s tie-breaking criteria. Administrators said the waiver must be sought annually and would apply to the current cohort after completion of the 11th-grade year. The public hearing and school board meeting are scheduled for March 10 at 6:00 p.m. in the Professional Learning Center boardroom.