Mercedes Schneider here examines the Data Quality Campaign.
Why is there so much demand for student data? Why now?
As she explains,
Corporate education reform is designed to turn profits for privatizers. That said, in corporate reform, there are two huge money makers that will ”outprofit” all other profiteering: standardized testing, and data sales and storage.
The two are inextricable. Consider the mandates for state participation in Race to the Top (RTTT). In order to compete for RTTT funding, states were required to demonstrate both a standardized testing dependence and establishment of a “statewide longitudinal data system.”
While the federal government insists that reform is being driven “by the states,” it is clear that the USDOE is actively clearing the way for reforms that it supports, one of which is the collecting of an unprecedented amount of data on America’s school children.
There are many funders of this unprecedented effort to collect data about the nation’s children.
But why?
When I was Assistant Secretary of the Office of Educational Research and Innovation in the early 1990s, I was often called upon to respond to parents who wrote to ask why the federal government was collecting data about their children. They thought that NAEP was the vehicle. I responded by saying that there was no such data collection, and all this was rumor and speculation and untrue.
But now it is fact. It is real. There will be a national database in which children have unique identifiers, and in which the uses of this information are unclear.
Again: Why?
This is an issue that transcends political parties or ideology. Teachers are not permitted to disclose personal information about their students. Why is it being collected? For what purpose? For whose purpose? Shouldn’t parental consent be necessary?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane– Teachers, and administrators are not allowed to disclose student information without parental consent. Help me understand how Commissioner King and the Board of Regents , Chancellor Tisch; Arne Duncan can disclose this information to a data base such as inBloom without parental consent?
Are they above the law?? I have SERIOUS ISSUES with this!!!!
Marge
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Marge,
Releasing confidential student data to an online web portal is simply wrong. It must be stopped. This is part of the drive to eliminate all privacy, so that data may be used for marketing and developing products.
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Or recruiting purposes. I can see how all of this data can make it easier to be even more selective in recruiting students, kinda like how some employers force applicants take a personality test that weeds out “problematic applicants” even though these exams are bunk. Except one’s performance (altogether) follows him/her for the rest of their lives and is sold to the highest bidder, and can be used against them without due process.
Perhaps we can also think of it as a criminal record that can’t be avoided and can’t be expunged. But it sure makes future schools/colleges/employers work easier!
I can imagine the Milton Friedman/vonHayek lizards salivating over the possibility of creating another market that should not exist.
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It’s bigger than that. It’s nationalizing education.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hoge/anita101.htm
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hoge/anita102.htm
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Here’s the parody of NY State Ed.
Commissioner reacting to parents
resisting Common Core.
There’s a reference to the student
data issue at 2:38:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvKVkitKOgk
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Marge,
Obama unlocked data to third party vendors with the expansion of FERPA, Family Education Rights in Privacy Act, Jan, 2012. There was no Congressional authority to do this. Written agreements are now ALLOWED with a new definition of ” school official”. Also to evaluate programs. Please read this article to understand how to expose the data collection. Anita B Hoge
http://newswithviews.com/Hoge/anita100.htm
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I’ve heard before that FERPA was changed with no Congressional authority. Was this legal? Is there a chance that these changes could be declared unconstitutional?
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Bookworm, I have a network of researchers that have been following ed reform for some time. This is some of our Ed researchers plan: Under FOIA through our federal legislators, request the third party Cooperative Agreements & Memorandums of understanding that have access to the re-disclosure of data. They get this data for free. These vendors, non-profits, & foundations are developing digital software, testing, teacher evaluations, etc. all aligned to Common Core. Then it is sold back to the schools. The amount of contractors out there that have access to this data is astounding. They are making BIG bucks on our children. It must be stopped. Once these legislators understand that anyone can access the data through a written agreement, we can pressure the Feds to have an investigation. This is insider trading, only worse…it’s our kids. Depending on which state you are in, & which testing consortium you are in, look at the FOIA requests on the second page of my article. These requests pinpoint every contractor that has access to the data mining through RE-DISCLOSURE. Im sure there are more. My requests have both consortiums listed, as well as ACT.
[BTW, ACT developed the benchmarks for Common Core. Everyone thinks that CCSSO & Natl Gov Assoc. developed CC. Not true. The CC was developed under labor, Secretaries Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991, SCANS. I have all the documents and all the elements for the national data base.]
Recovery Act mandated that every state have a state longitudinal data system. America Competes Act aligned the data elements P-20, pre-school through career. Common Core is the standardized system for computer retrieval of relevant data of each person in the system. This is a business decision making model to pinpoint in the system who is not in compliance to the government agenda, so they can be remediated. So this is why teachers are being pinpointed. They are not lining up with the government protocol.
The grant shows how the data collection will work.
Plus, CC is expanded to values & dispositions. Each student will have to have the right attitudes & values, too. Here is the link:
Click to access ILN%20Knowledge%20Skills%20and%20Dispositions%20CCR%20Framework%20February%202013.pdf
We are trying best we can to expose this agenda. Let me know if you need any documentation. Hogieshack@comcast.net
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Thanks Anita!
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Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
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It states that this P. Institute is primarily focused on helping the less fortunate. Obviously, they must mean in countries outside of America.
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It starts in pre-K. With the emphasis on online assessment tools, state supported pre-K schools and classrooms must understand that any data collected is immediately able to be seen by any and all administrators who work for the entity that purchases access to the tool on behalf of the classroom. Who holds the purse sees the data…and can do with it as it pleases.
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Good Afternoon — Let us them ask the question: Does this include Medical Records? Does inBloom have the right to access of a student’s Medical Records? I have ISSUES with this.
Marge
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Marge, The name of the game is RE-disclosure of data that CAN be disclosed to third party vendors.
Education records DO NOT apply to HIPPA. Plus the definition of an Ed record according to FERPA regulations follows:
This is the definition for Personally Identifiable Information or PII that should be a concern to every parent:
(a) The student’s name;
(b) The name of the student’s parent or other family members;
(c) The address of the student or student’s family;
(d) A personal identifier, such as the student’s social security number, student number, or biometric record;
(e) Other indirect identifiers, such as the student’s date of birth, place of birth, and mother’s maiden name;
(f) Other information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific student that would allow a reasonable person in the school community, who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the student with reasonable certainty; or
(g) Information requested by a person who the educational agency or institution reasonably believes knows the identity of the student to whom the education record relates.
“Biometric record,” as used in the definition for “personally identifiable information,” means a record of one or more measurable biological or behavioral characteristics that can be used for automated recognition of an individual. Examples include fingerprints; retina and iris patterns; voiceprints; DNA sequence; facial characteristics; and handwriting.
Anita B Hoge
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I am not as cynical as some about the reason they want data. Businesses want to measure how a business is doing and I sure those who think they have the magic bullet to solve education problems really think the pulling down of data will result in something big. Unfortunately for us those people know as much less about education than they think. They don’t know what to measure and they don’t know what their data means.
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Sent from my iPad
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We’ve heard of Big Oil, Big banks, Big Pharma, Big government…and now I think the latest monster that’s appeared on the horizon is BIG DATA.
Just my two farthings’ worth…
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For one possible scenarios of Big Data carried to its logical conclusion, read Dave Eggers’s “The Circle”.
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I don’t believe we should discount this clear & present threat to privacy in any way. I don’t care whether or not the DOE or anyone else knows what to do with what they’re collecting– they’ll figure something out. Everything I’ve seen on media which is actually paying attention to this (PBS) is: our laws are lagging way behind the technology. The public needs to wise up and react swiftly! Refuse the data! Sue if must be!
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Collection of data is the key element for the system to function. You are right. Stop the data flow. We must insist on a federal investigation on FERPA – RE-DISCLOSURE of PII, personally identifiable information which is giving out data for free to third party contractors unknown to most parents, teachers, legislators. Please see prior reply for letter to your federal legislators…
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