Montana's spelling bees see changes amid pandemic

The structure of Montana’s spelling bees have been, and will be, somewhat different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has necessitated many related events be held remotely.

Gallatin County Superintendent of Schools Matthew Henry is overseeing the Treasure State Spelling Bee this year and is the one who made the final decision to hold the event virtually.

Henry said his decision was based on the state of COVID-19 in Montana early in 2021 and the bellwether that promoted his decision was Gallatin County putting a limit on gathering size.

He said he thinks most people would support the decision to hold the event virtually given the circumstance and the fact that he can only make the decision based on the information he currently has, as well as how many counties decided to cancel their spelling bees.

State-level

Henry said this year’s state bee will be administered in the form of a test through the Scripps’s online testing platform, which was developed by the organization in response to having to cancel the national bee last year due to the pandemic.

Henry said the test will feature questions about spelling in which students will need to spell the word out by typing it, and vocabulary questions which will likely be multiple choice.

He said the finer details of the test aren’t available just yet but that is his understanding.

The student with the highest score on the test will advance to the national bee.

He said the decision by Scripps to include vocabulary question was partially to decrease the chances of a tie.

Henry said he’s attended presentations on the testing platform and most schools he’s spoke with that have used it have indicated it’s an effective and easy-to-use system.

He said Scripps does have tie-breaking procedures but he’d rather avoid having to use them.

Henry said he’s heard some concerns about the security of these tests and said they all have time limits and are proctored by teachers or parents who will watch for signs of cheating.

Participants will also be required to sign an integrity pledge.

He said there may be more safeguards yet undisclosed because Scripps hasn’t release its full plans just yet.

Unfortunately, he said, due to the nature of the event there will not be much of a spectatorship aspect to the bee, but he’s happy the state can still give students the opportunity to participate in a bee, and schools who paid their registration fees in good faith will not be deprived of an event they paid for.

“I was scratching my head wondering how to pull it off, but my goal was to make sure there was some kind of mechanism for kids to be able to make it to the state and national bee,” he said.

Henry said the state-level bee is planned to take place March 25, but that date still requires approval from Scripps and may change.

County-level

Many counties across Montana, including Hill County, cancelled their spelling bees due to the pandemic, but the state has provided a solution in the form of an intermediate-level spelling bee which will function similarly to the online state-level bee.

Each school is permitted to send one champion from their own spelling bee to the intermediate bee, which Henry said will act as the qualifier for the state-level competition with the top 60 scorers advancing.

Henry said there was no way that he could find to fairly ensure that every county had representation on the state level with this new model, which opens up the unusual possibility of having more — or fewer — than one champion per county advancing to the state-level bee.

The intermediate bee will take place between Feb. 22 and Feb. 25.

Nation-level

Henry said the National Spelling Bee is happening this year, unlike in 2020, but he didn’t have many details because the event was still being planned by Scripps.

He said there are always questions about the bee and how it will work in any given year, and while people have more questions this year, he hasn’t seen any kind of groundswell of confusion.

He said there is a possibility that the remote aspects of this year’s bees may show up in some capacity in later years depending on if they are liked or not, but he’s looking forward to having the option of an in-person event again.

“We’re looking forward to a time where we can go back to normal and have a normal spelling bee,” he said.