This is very odd. The public schools of Douglas County, Colorado, are controlled by one of the most conservative school boards in the nation, which just retained its majority in a closer-than-expected election. Conservatives usually are zealous about privacy rights and protect traditional institutions. But there is a new strain of ideologue who wants the free market to rule, and the market demands data.
This reader–noting that Colorado pulled out of inBloom–says Douglas County will create and market its own data system:
“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. They have called it InspirEd. Read about it on the DCSD website, https://www.dcsdk12.org/communityrelations/Newsroom/Article/index.htm?cID=DCS1242698.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The second link just takes us to the DC website, and not to a document or news story. I wonder, Diane, if you would be so good as to provide a more direct link in this post, to the DC document which adumbrates its intention of creating its own localized student tracking program.
Looks like it added a few characters. Here’s the link I found: https://www.dcsdk12.org/communityrelations/Newsroom/Article/index.htm?cID=DCS1242698
This makes even less sense than it appears to on the surface. The inBloom software is open source, you can download it and at least in theory host a version of the whole system at Douglas County, the Colorado DoE, or in your office. I really ought to try this myself soon…
But anyhow, that point has been sitting there all along, making no sense. You don’t need inBloom company to run inBloom the software. It isn’t like they’re even running their own servers (they’re using Amazon services). Anyone could be getting the advantages of inBloom without losing control of their data. The only difference I can see is that Pearson, Murdoch, etc. would have to interact with dozens of local inBlooms instead of just one, but it isn’t like they’d be doing that by Pony Express. We have the internet! Exchanging data with 100 servers isn’t that much harder than with one.
It is baffling.
The superintendent referred to in the article, was our superintendent for two years in Tucson. (She’s also a speaker for the Friedman foundation, which gives you her reform credentials. Yes, she supports vouchers and teacher pay, based on “market value”). She was a disaster as a Supe (IMO). Tucson’s level of poverty and declining enrollment were just too much for Ms. Fagen’s vision of education. There is less poverty in Douglas Co., 3.5% overall poverty compared to 29% of children living in poverty in Tucson, and there are less non-whites there too, 45% in Tucson compared to 14% in Douglas County. Median family income in Douglas County is $102,000 vs. $46,000 in Tucson. Ms Fagen is definitely a better fit in an upper class community, I wonder how our board could have made such a mistake in choosing her for our community. (Rick Hess is one of her fans, which also tells you something.) http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2012/03/straight_up_conversation_douglas_county_supe_liz_fagen.html
One thing we do have in TUSD is a top-notch data system (for teachers and parents only), and I guess for the brief time that Ms Fagen was here, she saw that data system’s potential for profit in her current gig.
Hey, makes sense to me. Each district can become an edupreneuer, selling it’s wares in the sacred market place of eduideas and make a profit thereby lowering the taxes needed to fund the system. It’s a win/win for the district!
Crap, now I just gave the edudeformers another edudeform to run with.
Duane,
It looks to me that they are selling the teachers work- not their own. The teachers lesson plans should belong to the teacher, not the district. If they want to sale it, the teachers should get the profit. This is simply a way for the district to profit off of the teachers, in my opinion. No wonder teachers are leaving Douglas County in droves- nobody wants to work for Liz Fagan as she lies, cheats, and manipulates at every opportunity.
Douglas County = LALA Land