West Virginia school officials are asking the public to provide something they said they didn't receive from the Legislature when it tried this year to repeal the state's Common Core-based education standards: any feedback on specific standards.
The state Department of Education on Wednesday announced the launch of a new website at wvacademicspotlight.statestandards.org that allows people to read and comment on any of the over 900 math and English/language arts K-12 standards after entering required data such as their names, whether they live in West Virginia and whether they are a parent, teacher or in some other role.
"Please understand that only the comments directed at specific standards will be considered," an underlined sentence on the website stresses.
As the Legislature - taken over by Republicans for the first time in about eight decades - moved earlier this year to repeal West Virginia's math and English/language arts standards, State Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano said he hadn't heard one particular standard that legislators were concerned with.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, asked Republican delegates on the House floor to name which standards of Common Core they specifically objected to. He instead received anecdotes about problems with required student work supposedly based off the standards, before the House voted 75-19, with many Democratic delegates joining the GOP, to pass a bill to repeal the standards.
Upon receiving the House's bill, the Senate rewrote it to instead require a review of the standards - and even that version of the legislation failed to pass when the House refused to agree with the Senate's changes.
At least in Kanawha County, the state's largest school district, data shows little evidence of the movement seen in other states for students to refuse to take standardized tests based on Common Core standards, which are only for math and English/language arts.
The Common Core-based standards only went into effect across all of the Mountain State last school year, along with a new statewide standardized test based off them called Smarter Balanced. The Common Core, a national standards blueprint adopted by over 40 states, is meant to ensure that students across the nation are learning necessary skills, and tests like Smarter Balanced allow student results to be compared among states, instead of just among districts in West Virginia.
Opposition to Common Core has become an issue in the national Republican presidential primary. In West Virginia, state Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, the only declared GOP candidate for governor, has said he opposes the standards.
Martirano did tell state Board of Education members Wednesday that he was concerned by data indicating that West Virginia students, despite being projected by the standardized testing vendor to take on average 7 hours and 30 minutes on both portions of the test - save for two 30-minute classroom activities - were on average finishing in only 3 hours and 25 minutes.
As grade level increased, data showed the time spent on the test decreased, and the data also showed those who spent more time on the test scored higher. Martirano said this indicates that students in high school aren't taking the test - which doesn't count toward grades - as seriously as they should. He suggested putting "teeth" into the importance of the test, but said he's still considering ideas and declined to reveal them to reporters Wednesday.
Despite the failure of the Legislature's review bill, Martirano is moving forward with a review in partnership with entities including West Virginia University and the Southern Regional Education Board, which includes West Virginia and 15 other member states. He told reporters at a press conference Wednesday that he still hasn't seen "detailed specifics about what's actually wrong with our standards."
Information from officials at WVU indicated the review effort has received $300,000 so far in funding, including $100,000 from the state Department of Education and another $100,000 from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, which supports education and economic development in West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania.
Sue Day-Perroots, associate vice president of academic innovation at WVU, said she didn't know how much the total review would cost, but WVU is still seeking contributions. She said the value of the in-kind work being provided by students, extension office employees and others in the review "far exceeds" the $300,000.
The online comment portal will be open through Sept. 30, after which WVU will help organize two advisory groups, one for math and one for English/language arts, that will analyze the comments and make recommendations for changes in the standards to the state Board of Education.
State Department of Education officials said Wednesday they didn't have details yet on who exactly would comprise those advisory groups - Sarah Stewart, the department's director of policy and government relations, said they could include parent, business community representatives and members of teachers unions - or on the number and location of "regional town halls" they plan to have as part of the review. Bill White, a member of the state school board, said it's critical that the review process gets comments from the many West Virginia residents without Internet access.
Stewart said the public comments submitted online should be publicly available for review, though she couldn't confirm whether that would be before the state school board decides, hopefully by the end of the year, on whether to amend the standards in response to the input. She said when the comments are made public, they won't include certain information initially required of commenters to give their opinions, like their email addresses.
State school officials have repeatedly said most of West Virginia's math and English/language arts standards are the same as the standards that existed here before the state's adoption of Common Core-based standards. Furthermore, they've argued that West Virginia teachers were not only heavily involved in the writing of the Common Core standards, but also in customization of the standards for the Mountain State.
"And our handprints are all over that work," said Teresa Hammond, assistant director of the state Office of Early Learning.
"The outcry we hear is we don't like the standards, we don't like the standards," Stewart said. "We're trying to figure out what people don't like about the standards, so if there are problems we can fix those."
She said the fact that West Virginia's current standardized test is based off the current standards is not going to dictate how much or how little the state school board may change the standards following the review. She said state law prevents entering into more than a one-year contract with the testing vendor.
"We really want to dig into this issue, see what they problems are, and put it to rest," Stewart said. "Whatever the outcome may be, whatever those tweaks may be, but there has to be a point where we agreed to disagree, we agree to a compromise, and we move forward with education in West Virginia."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.