Granville, Hartford low opt outs; Whitehall average

By Dan King and Christina Scanlon

Students at area school districts opted out of Common Core with less frequency than most of the county and less than the state average, data shows.

The statewide average for opt-outs in grades three through eight in math and ELA was 20 percent.

Data shows that opt-out rates were higher in math than ELA, and that students who fared well in 2014 opted out at a rate close to zero in 2015.

In Granville, District Superintendent Mark Bessen said there was an increase in opt-outs for math, following the ELA testing the week before.

Those increases were also seen in Hartford and Whitehall.

Not able to determine an exact cause, Bessen noted the district had received three opt-outs prior to the math testing. For ELA, a majority of the opt-outs came via an online template promoted through a television campaign.

For the most part, the second round of opt-outs were a “cut and paste” from the website.

Andy Cook, Harford superintendent, did not see the template in the volume Bessen did.

“Most of ours were handwritten,” said Cook. “We didn’t have a good indication ahead of time who would opt out.” Therefore, the district did not have any expectation of what percentages they would see not participating.

Parents, he said, “had a powerful argument,” when they indicated they were opting children out because the tests were three times as long as any other tests “with no inherent benefit to the students.”

Overall, Granville had 8 percent in math and 3 percent in ELA, and Hartford had 11 percent in math and 6 percent in ELA. Whitehall saw a 20 percent opt-out in math and 15 percent in ELA.

Granville and Hartford didn’t have any students opt out of a test who received a superior score the year prior, in either subject. Whitehall didn’t have any in ELA and only had 1 percent in math.

“It’s hard for me to reflect on this data, because I wasn’t here when the tests were taken,” Whitehall interim superintendent Bill Scott said. “But in other districts that I’ve worked in where there were opt-outs we would try to sit down and figure out why kids were opting out, and I think that’s what we should do here.”

He also pointed out that both interim high school principal Mark Doody and elementary school principal Rich Trowbridge were not yet with the district either, further complicating any reflection.

Scott said that while the data is certainly useful to educators, he likes to “reassure parents that (the test) doesn’t reflect poorly on students, and relieve any uncertainty and stress about the tests.”

When the tests were being administered in April, the overall opt-out rate was at 19 percent in Whitehall. At that time, then-superintendent Liz Legault said, “I think it’s two main reasons. One is a perception of what people hear about it and number two is some parents do not believe this assessment is going to give you a true read-out of who their son or daughter is; they have a moral opposition to it.”