The superintendent of schools in Pleasantville, New York, announced that the district was returning its Race to the Top funding and withdrawing from Race to the Top.
The reason: the district wants to protect the privacy of its students. New York is one of the few states that has agreed to turn over all student data to inBloom, the Gates-funded data mining operation whose software was developed by a company owned by Rupert Murdoch . Since New York is not allowing parents to refuse permission to remove their names from this mammoth database in the “cloud,” the whole district has opted out of RTTT.
“Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter said the district will return grant funds in favor of protecting student privacy. Citing a desire to “protect student privacy,” Pleasantville Union Free School District Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter said she thinks it’s “a really big deal” that the Board of Education voted to withdraw from the federal Race to the Top program.
“The district’s Board voted on a resolution at Tuesday’s meeting to return the $6,000 in grant funds—distributed over the course of four years—that would require Pleasantville to “comply with a number of New York State requirements, including participation in an electronic data portal—a data dashboard,” according to a statement from the schools.”
Apparently, many other districts have also dropped out of Race to the Top:
“In an interview with Patch Friday, Fox-Alter said the “data dashboard” would remotely host student information that ranges from academic programs to immunization records, disciplinary records and attendance.
“This dashboard has the potential to collect over 400 data elements that have been identified in the State Education Department’s data template dictionary,” according to the statement.
“Many of the student-tracking data is already collected—and protected—by the district, according to Fox-Alter.
“Pleasantville already has a password-protected system that provides student information to parents and protects student privacy; the data dashboard required by the State Education Department is both redundant and, through inclusion of personally identifiable information such as discipline flags, immunization shots, attendance, and more, could violate students’ privacy rights,” the statement said.
“Fox-Alter added other area school districts have taken similar measures in the name of protecting student privacy, including Hastings-on-Hudson, Mount Pleasant, Pocantico Hills, Pelham, Rye Neck and Hyde Park.
“The potential for data mining is staggering,” Pleasantville’s Superintendent added. “It is frightening that corporations such as Pearson and EScholar are involved in this data cloud and are forecasting great profit in the K-12 public education market.”
I wonder if this means that the districts do not have to judge their teachers by student test scores or open charter schools?
Imagine: the Pleasantville district was wrapped up in federal mandates and massive invasion of student privacy for only $1500 a year. What a bad deal!
Diane, could you list the other states that have agreed to turn all student data over to inBloom? Also, is there a connection between inBloom and SCORE’s Tri-pod survey? Thank you!
This is what John King really thinks
of parents who “opt out”, or even
complain about his “education
reform.”
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2013/10/fine-dining-with-new-york-state.html
King draws an asinine analogy
between parents bitching about
Common Core, or excessive or
inappropriate-for-grade-level
testing or whatever…
to…
the lack of restraint to a customer
would show at a restaurant when
that customer has a problem with
the wine or food served to him:
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2013/10/fine-dining-with-new-york-state.html
He puts himself in a higher order
of class than those belly-aching
parents because when a waiter
brings him substandard food or
wine… well… in such a situation,
he doesn’t complain, or send it
back. He sits there and eats it
whether he likes it or not…
(*** actual quote… no joke***)
JOHN KING: “When I’m in a
restaurant, and the waiter opens
the bottle of wine for me to taste,
I never say ‘No,’ send it back,
even if it’s horrible. The same with
my meal; if I don’t like it I’ll eat it
anyway.”
AND DAMN IT!!! THAT’S WHAT
THE PARENTS AND STUDENTS
IN NEW YORK STATE SHOULD
DO AS WELL WITH MY
COMMON CORE TESTING
AND CURRICULUM!!!
I get so embarrassed for everyone involved when I read what he says and does.
Yikes.
If my wine is corky or turned, and it is an expensive bottle (or not), I am sending it back. The wine rep and winery need to know about a bad batch!!! They want to know (I have family in the wine industry).
Mr King needs to travel the world a little. Then come back and try again.
Unfortunately this does not mean their data is saved from the inBloom cloud, as NYSED has said they are uploading a complete statewide data set.
Leonie would know best! My understanding was that when NYS accepted the RTTT grant money THE ENTIRE STATE — ALL DISTRICTS — would either immediately or eventually be bound to the many (imprudent) promises former Gov. Patterson made to the feds, regardless of whether the district accepted RTTT money.
Don’t know much about Pleasantville as an area in which to live. But if I may guess, upper middle class to upper class??
Someone who knows let me know if I’m wrong.
Thanks in advance!
90% white. Incomes range widely:
>>>>>>The median income for a household in the village was $86,632, and the median income for a family was $105,227. Males had a median income of $62,344 versus $47,978 for females. The per capita income for the village was $41,397. About 2.0% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 3.5% of those age 65 or over.
Pleasantville High School is ranked #191 by Newsweek’s list of the top High Schools in the country. (The top 6% extends down to #1600) [1]>>>> wiki
My nephew grew-up there and went to PS thru HS. He was lower-middle class. It’s a NYC suburb so cost of living is very high. ( Consider that when crunching the income stats above.)
Far as I recall, there was general satisfaction.w. the (unionized, with seniority-based teaching force) ps system there and families moved there for that very reason.
Nephew went on to top-flight four year private school. ( The loans from which he’s still paying off.)
Thanks for the info!
About an hour north of New York City in Westchester County, NY.
The Clintons often visit the movie theater from nearby Chappaqua.
Small, close knot community on the Metro North train line.
Here’s a parody of New York State Ed.
Commissioner’s pushing of excessive
high stakes testing and the dubious
and unproven Common Core
standards.
It also references the controversial
data-collecting issue 02:36:
“Imagine: the Pleasantville district was wrapped up in federal mandates and massive invasion of student privacy for only $1500 a year. What a bad deal!”
With all due respect, Diane, and I do hold you in HIGH esteem, you missed a poignant point…Children should not be for sale for ANY price!
Other than that, a very commendable and enlightening posting. The way these and other programs are going, I am getting the impression of MY OWN GOVERNMENT tattooing a number on my arm, as was done in Germany years ago. I’ll bet THAT won’t be taught in a Common Core class!
Thank you for all you do.
If Common Core Lives, Freedom Dies.
http://www.killcommoncore.com
RalphPierre this is a good point. I wonder if districts with the greatest need for extra cash are also the ones receiving the most cash making it even harder to give up.
My hope is that many more districts will opt out!
“The district’s Board voted on a resolution at Tuesday’s meeting to return the $6,000 in grant funds—distributed over the course of four years—that would require Pleasantville to “comply with a number of New York State requirements, including participation in an electronic data portal—a data dashboard,” according to a statement from the schools.”
They got 6,000 in grant funds over 4 years to participate? Doesn’t seem like enough, quite frankly. Does this even cover the costs of participating, or are those apart from the 6,000?
Is RttT even a good deal for existing public schools? I know they’re all strapped for funding under the “funding doesn’t matter, just clap louder!” reform mantra, but 6000 over 4?
Most districts received 10 percent or less of the monies they needed to comply with RTTT! I can’t believe more districts haven’t said “no” to participating in the sham. If it took a few wealthy, suburban districts to show us the way – so be it.
If it’s so good, why does it have to be MANDATED? Duh..another boondoggle for BIG BUSINESS and NSA. Horrors…our sdudents, their parents/families, and teachers are being USED by Big Busisness and our Government for their own personal and financial gains. It’s all reprehensible.
Same with Obamacare.
Duncan and Klein are Murdoch’s poodles. Rupert will get the money for his database fraud in the US unless parents say NO. Next week, the UK criminal trial involving News Corp executives will send shockwaves across the Atlantic – first to New York. The trial is about how Rupert’s minions gained illegal access of personal information for financial gain and bribed police. If illegal access of personal information happened in the UK, it has happened in the US. I’m curious if Gates, Klein, Bloomberg, King, Duncan, and Rhee are handing over their relatives personal information to Rupert Murdoch. Parents need to ask King if Montessori participates in inBloom.
So, concerned mom and educator, what say you about all of this?
Freedom is worth the price..
Freedom to create….imagine…read whole novels…
Freedom from excessive testing…….(or so I am assuming)
Money can;t buy everything…..
Ok so if a wealthy district can get out of this, but not a poorer district (because they can’t afford to send the money back). then there is a problem. And the Southern Poverty Law Center needs to file a lawsuit. Right? Poor children have less protected privacy rights??
Is Pleasantville a wealthy distirct?
Poor can send the money back..
They can use the pencil-pen-old chalk-blackboard method..
Works just fine…..assuming they do have access to computers not paid for by RTTT..
I had no idea individual school districts could opt out. I live in Pennsylvania. I thought we were “racing to the top” as a state. Can someone please confirm that individual school districts in any state can opt out? Did this district just make a statement or are they now actually opted out of it all? Dare I dream?
Right thing to do Pleasantville..
I had the same thought as poster Joanna Best. It seems to me the anti-reform movement started gaining steam when more affluent, suburban districts had the same demands imposed on them and their administrators and parents became vocal about it. If they are able to afford to pull out of RTTT, the poor, minority, urban parents will lose allies when the nightmare is over for those communities and those voices become silent.
Will be very interesting so see what happens when Bill DiBlasio becomes mayor of NYC (he was very cozy with Obama when POTUS visited). Will he send back NYC’s RTTT money? Who will his chancellor be- an career, respected educator or a corporate reformer? Will he treat all NYC school children the same, or will schools like Beacon H.S. (where is daughter attended, and has one of the highest % of white students of any NYC H.S.) be allowed more freedoms in terms of testing and curriculum?
Is there anyone with time/resources on their hand that would like to do a state-wide listing of how much individual districts received for RttT participation?
If we get that, then we can do fund-raising for those districts that can potentially afford to send the money back (or don’t want to bow out of the testing) and confront them publicly that if given the chance to still get the funds without participating, what’s their reason for staying in it?
I can hear the platitudes from here – but – it would force districts to go on the record as to why they want in-bloom to have their students data.