Colorado has severed its ties with inBloom, the data storage project financed by the Gates and Carnegie Corporation, which intended to aggregate 400 data points on every student, including confidential information, and store it on a “cloud” managed by amazon.com. Parents are fearful that the data cloud may be hacked and that the ultimate purpose of the data warehouse is to use their children’s information for marketing purposes.
A reader sent this message:
“I was fortunate to be with a large group of parents united against inBloom and Common Core yesterday, when the CDE announced to us that they have severed ties with inBloom statewide! Please spread the word that Colorado will “Bloom no more”! Cheri Kiesecker CoreConcerns.weebly.com”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
actually, Colorado, by dumping inBloom, may just be moving toward a new, honest, pre spring bloom; smell the roses.
Ask to see the written cancellation.
Louisana was told of “severed ties,” and it was a lie. InBloom tweeted as much.
Was just ready to post something similar. Nothing on that website for independent verification.
Here’s some verification.
://www.ourcoloradonews.com/arvada/news/jeffco-schools-unanimous-vote-uproots-inbloom/article_1032f5d2-a38b-54cb-a53e-05af93df8edf.html
Additionally, we were told that the CDE plans a press release tomorrow after the conclusion of their two day meeting. We will post it here in the comments when we see it.
And I’m always leery. What do they replace it with? I just don’t trust anyone these days. . . pretty sad, huh?
I am told that the Colorado Board of Education will post a press release regarding inBloom today, after they convene from continued meetings.
Indiana IG files ethics complaint re: Bennett using state DOE computers for campaign work:
“The Indiana Inspector General has filed an ethics complaint against former state superintendent Tony Bennett for using state computers for campaign business during his 2012 reelection bid.
This summer, the Associated Press published documents showing Bennett’s team kept a database of Republican donors on Indiana Department of Education computers.”
Remember, reformers are “agnostics” – just looking at the data and not pursuing an ideological agenda! No politics here. No, sir.
http://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2013/11/14/indiana-inspector-general-files-ethics-complaint-tony-bennett/
Click to access Complaint-Bennett-11-14-13.pdf
“The undersigned alleges and says:
That over the course of 2012, Respondent improperly made use of state materials,
funds, property, personnel, facilities, or equipment for a propose other than for official
state business, said use not expressly permitted by a general written depat~tmental policy,
to-wit: used state computer systems, equipment and/or software to engage in political
campaign and/or personal activity, including: political campaign fundraising, responding
to a political opponent’s assertions, scheduling campaign meetings, scheduling campaign telephone calls, and/or other political and/or personal activity, all in violation of 42 IAC
1-5-12.”
How do you think public schools fared under Bennett, given his ideological fealty to “choice” ? Think they were given a fair shot as compared to his preferred charters?
Not sure how to post on your blog but wanted you to see the letter below from two Idaho legislators.
http://www.idahoednews.org/voices/a-letter-to-legislators-from-committee-leaders/
Sent from my iPhone
Exactly. The pressure is on here in Idaho. Pre-emptive strike is one word used to describe the House and Senate Education Chairs’ behavior. And in other news…Bruce Reed, an Idaho native is leaving his post with Vice President Biden to assume a leadership position in……(drum roll please)…..the Broad Foundation.
Such good news!
Sandra Wickham Woodland Park
Douglas County School District in Colorado has hired consultants to create their own form of Inbloom. The BOE members have publicly stated they wish to market and sell the program to other districts. The have called it InspirEd. Read about on the DCSD website, https://www.dcsdk12.org/communityrelations/Newsroom/Article/index.htm?cID=DCS1242698.
Name one parent in the United States who would allow Rupert Murdoch and/or Joel Klein plus their front man Arne Duncan to access their children’s personal information, test results and medical records for profiteering and other nefarious purposes.
Here’s the political reality of the Colorado State Board of Education cancelling InBloom: The only school district that was going to use it, Jefferson County, just had a school board election, and the new majority opposed InBloom. Their first meeting, they canceled their contract, which led the state to also cancel its contract. This same newly elected majority also favors “reforms” from neighboring Douglas County, the school district that terminated its contract with its teachers union and instituted a new “merit based” pay system. They also want vouchers, more charters, etc.
So….InBloom has created a new alliance between the left and the right, but I fear for Jeffco’s new board as much as I fear InBloom.
Yes, exactly. The new board members were endorsed and heavily funded by a conservative group that promotes vouchers, wants to greatly expand the number of charter and options schools, and is no fan of teachers’ unions. “Accountability” is a big rallying cry for them. The same group is closely associated with the reformers in Douglas County, and they had stated their goal expanding their reach into Jeffco late last year.
I am deeply concerned.
Here is an exchange between a concerned legislator and superintendent and superintendent Luna’s office. What do you think?
Sent from my iPhone
Oops. Here’s the link.
http://blogs.idahostatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/State-Department-of-Education-response-.pdf Sent from my iPhone
If I lived in Colorado, I wouldn’t get too excited. Mike Miles came to Dallas ISD after losing his Senate bid and not being appointed to an open seat by the governor, either.
The bad news for Colorado is this: while being investigated for violating terms of his contract here in Dallas, Miles’ wife and son suddenly up and moved back to Colorado right before the school year started.
I’m not sure where Floyd Mike Miles is living these days (we haven’t seen much of him here), but if he’s headed back to Colorado, you have to know there is something in it for him and it probably has to do with some deformer agenda.
BOLO, Colo.
So, is the fix entirely in in New York, or will the voices of parents and of responsible school administrators be heard? That’s the next interesting question.
So how can I find out if my child’s school, school district or state is using the inBloom storage system? We are currently stationed in Hawaii and last time I went to my Oahu county school district website the information was either burried or missing completely?
Ask them, or ask Leonie Haimson at leonie@att.net
“Now, after receiving an enormous amount of negative feedback from Jeffco parents, the board on Nov. 7 voted to pull the plug on inBloom, a company that has received resistance from other school districts nationwide.
“It’s really important that we come together as a community and do what’s best for our 85,000 kids,” said board member Jill Fellman. “And it was real clear to me that as long as the words ‘inBloom’ were in play anywhere in our district, that wasn’t going to happen.”
http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/arvada/news/jeffco-schools-unanimous-vote-uproots-inbloom/article_1032f5d2-a38b-54cb-a53e-05af93df8edf.html
Name one parent in Colorado and beyond who would give Rupert Murdoch, Joel Klein, corporations and the reformer/data mining cheerleader Arne Duncan access to their children’s personal information, family information, test scores, and medical records.