Assesment opt out available option in Harrison County, but comes with consequences

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — As parents across the state are opting their students out of the new Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium tests, one county is saying that option is available, but comes with consequences.

“Though I respect people’s decisions, I hope they respect ours,” Harrison County Superintendent Mark Manchin said. “We simply can not allow them to opt out, or decide that they don’t want to participate in the statewide assessment.”

Manchin said Friday on “The Mike Queen Show” heard on the AJR News Network that, despite what representatives from the State Board of Education have said currently and in the past, this stance was created on a local level with no directive from the state.

He wondered if they did not draw a line now, what the future implications would be of allowing individuals to pick and choose which aspects of public education they participate in.

“What if a parent doesn’t like another decision that we make here? They’re going to, unilaterally, to allow their student to opt out of disciplinary issues, or other issues that we have at the school system and [the administration] allow that to take place? We’re going to create anarchy in our school system.”

The severity of the punishment could vary from school to school

“We’ve informed the principals that, as in any other disciplinary issue or any other area where a student has chosen not to participate or participate in an unsatisfactory way, they may be subject to disciplinary issues.”

The guideline will be the county policy for insubordination, which is considered a Level III violation. The discipline options available under a Level III violation include after school detention and in-school/out-of-school suspension between 1 and ten days.

The discussion of the “opt out movement” became accelerated in West Virginia after the Herald-Dispatch reported on April 16 that around 200 students at Spring Valley High School in Wayne County had refused to take the test –potentially downgrading the school’s federal designation — with no punishment being issued currently as severe as in Harrison County.

“Wayne County can do as they see fit, Harrison County’s going to do as we see fit,” Manchin said. “Perhaps Wayne County, I don’t know what the rationale, but I think it’s sending a wrong message to the parents.”

While Manchin said he respects the concerns of parents, whether they be with the Common Core/Next Gen Standards, the result being collected in a national database, the concept of assessment testing in general or with moving away from pencil and paper tests, he believes the debate should be conducted outside of the classroom.

“This is not the avenue,” he said. “The information that is garnered from the testing, diagnostic, prescriptive, it tells us how we’er are doing. It tells us where students, specific students, are doing well, where specific students are not doing well. It drives our instruction.”

The Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium testing begins in Harrison County on Monday.