Reacting to the news that testing corporations are “monitoring” the social media accounts of children during and after testing, and forbidding even verbal discussions of the tests, retired educator Frank Breslin is outraged. He wrote to me:
“Pearson is encouraging educators to spy on their students’ privacy, thereby trying to undermine the integrity of the relationship that students have with their teachers. This is vitiating the entire tradition of student/teacher trust that has been a sacred tradition between them for thousands of years. They’re making educators complicit in this illegal and immoral spying on children, so that teachers are becoming adjuncts of a Police State.
“This is what the Nazis did to teachers during the Reich — having teachers spying on parents by having children report back to them what parents were saying against the Reich. This is diabolical! ”
I know that some readers object to any analogy that references Nazis, but Breslin might just as well have referred to the Stasi in East Germany or any other police state in which teachers are expected to inform the Authorities about the private communications of their students, and family members are expected to inform on each other.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I can’t believe the lengths the state are going to these days. They can’t advance fast enough into their devolution revolution. Humanity is losing it’s humanity, and fast. The proof is not that this happened, but that it will happen again and a lot more – and the Nazi reference was a fair one I think.
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I completely agree that the Nazi reference is fair game. The Nazis determined what went on in schools and manipulated the youth and families by controlling the teachers, amongst other aspects of their society.
I think it’s very difficult to NOT see similarities with the Nazis and what is occurring in our ostensibly free, democratic nation today. So much in this country is now ruled by the smallest fraction with the greatest wealth, from the Supreme Court to legislators to law enforcement to commerce to the media to education, etc., and their self-serving agendas are in serious conflict with the common good. This is very unlikely to end well for most of us in our already highly stratified society, where increasingly more of the populace is marginalized, dominated and controlled. Therefore, it is really critical that we try to protect the future of our country and our children by learning from history and taking action now.
As the sign I saw at the memorial at Dachau concentration camp says, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~George Santayana
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The analogy to National Socialism just doesn’t. Just look at the rise of National Socialism in the early 1920s, with its political and cultural roots deeply embedded German history. Then take a look at how the party evinced its ideolgy in every dimension of German life (see, for example, the official German documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, , “Triunph f the Will). Then, starting i the mid 1930s,we see the high point of German bureaucratic efficiency, the death camps. What we are now experiencing with Pearson and the collusion of USDOE, state government and schoo committees is abhorrent and trespasses on individual right, but there is no usable comparison with National Socialism. Spying on citizens has a well documented history in this country, as well as in all totalitarian regimes not only with National Socialism. The particulars of the current situation – the depth and breadth – of its infiltration into the warp and woof of public school education is radically different and incredibly dangerous. As I have written in other posts, it is the duty of the public to support and facilitate acts of resistance to the corporate, federal and local abrogation of citizens rights.
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Please do not tell Jewish people like me that we should not note the analogies we see between the actions of the overlords ruling this country and the Nazis. I think our country is in very big trouble and I feel I have a right to call out duplicity and signal red flags when I see them.
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Cosmictinker, you miss my point: the issue is what occurs in a society that is run by totalitarian state apparatus, and how that total control affects all aspects of society. I don’t think you would disagree with that opinion.
Now, as to the specific analogy to National Socialism, I just ask you to reread the substance of my post. I.don’t think it is terribly useful to make comparisons to National Socialism when the basis for the comparison doesn’t fit history. But, if that’s how you feel, by lord, go for it. You can write what you will, but the writing doesn’t make it valid.
Finally, for your information, I am Jewish and I have visited Dachau and Poland. So, please spare me your outrage. The German sign at the entry portal to Dachau is Arbeit Mach Frei. Perhaps, you should appropriate that message when writing about Pearson and the corporate educational complex, which is what we have before us and must resist That appropriation is both ironic and perversely on the money.
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Try learning something about how the Nazis changed their tactics in order to appear to be respectable, so they could seize power legally. Being wolves in sheeps clothing worked at the ballot box for them, too.
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This is a response to John a:
“see, for example, the official German documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, , “Triunph f the Will)”
Triumph of the Will was not a documentary of the Olympics; it was a doc of a Nazi rally. The doc of the Olympics that was made by the same director included footage of (African-American) Jesse Owens handily winning gold medals left and right, which was not in tune with Nazi ideology.
Of course the particulars are different; it is a different time and place. But the generalities? Too alike for me. I, too, have been feeling that we are seeing too much in common with pre-Nazi Germany.
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I understand the disinclination to compare current events to Nazi Germany..but there are moments when it seems important to be courageous enough to have an honest look. If we wish to promise “never again”…..don’t we need to analyze by comparison at times?
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Of course, Pearson is capitalizing on the loss of any distinction between private communications and could care less about the “integrity of the relationship that students have with their teachers. This is vitiating the entire tradition of student/teacher trust that has been a sacred tradition between them for thousands of years.”
Perhaps, but the distrust of teachers and of students and communications between them, and communications with parents is not just evident in these latest versions of corporate surveillance systems, Consider the spying apparatus, jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and US Department of Education since 2005.
The Gates project is the The Teacher Student Data Link (TSDL) intended to: 1. Determine which teachers help students become college-ready and successful, 2. Determine characteristics of effective educators, 3. Identify programs that prepare highly qualified and effective teachers, 4. Assess the value of non-traditional teacher preparation programs, 5. Evaluate professional development programs, 6. Determine variables that help or hinder student learning, 7. Plan effective assistance for teachers early in their career, and 8. Inform policy makers of best value practices, including compensation. See http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/about
In addition to these eight purposes, the TSDL system aims to have ”period-by-period tracking of teachers and students every day; including tests, quizzes, projects, homework, classroom participation, or other forms of day-to-day assessments and progress measures”—a level of accountability (I call it surveillance) that is said to be comparable to business practices (TSDL, 2011, “Key Components”). The aim overall aim is for some unnamed and omnipotent person or group to determine the “best value” investments in education and monitor outcomes, taking into account as many demographic factors as possible, including health records for preschoolers. You can be certain that none of this will be done under conditions of “informed consent.”
This TSDL project dovetails with the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program, authorized under Title II, Educational Technical Assistance of the ‘‘Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 H. R. 3801.” See http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/.
The U.S. Department of Education has helped states create standardized longitudinal data systems intended to “efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, and use education data, including individual student records” so that districts, schools, and teachers “can make data-driven decisions to improve student learning, as well as facilitate research to increase student achievement and close achievement gaps” (USDE, 2011, Overview). This system has become infamous for modifying FERPA laws and permitting commercial access to student data, with permissions from districts.
The orwellian graphic for the USDE data system is here: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/edlite-xplan-sdm.html
By design, policy makers and profit-seekers and a lot of politicians have exaggerated the need for “accountability. They have transformed some legitimate and necessary bookkeeping for schools into a surveillance system, and used that system to create an endless array of messages intended to spread public distrust of the work of teachers and all of nation’s public schools.
Proctored tests with tight security are part of that machinery of distrust, along with the reification of test scores, and the determination of test-makers to protect the two illusions: that tests are objective, and that test security so vital that the STRICTEST forms of surveillance are needed for ‘”fairness,”
Baloney. The surveillance is there to protect profits.
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Big brother is watching you! It seems like Gates wants a system to keep a vice grip on teachers and students. If Gates wants to improve the conversation, he should jettison VAM, a ridiculous unscientific pile of statistical garbage, along with some other absurd ideas.
If Gates wants to improve teaching and learning, he should start by talking to people instead of capturing data. He should trust that many educational researchers know what works. He should use his considerable influence and money to actually make a difference by supporting legislation that supports public schools rather than surveilling and data mining teachers and students.
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Gates doesn’t give a crap about people. He is a technocrat. All they know is data and numbers. Look at all of the work the Gates Foundation does, it is all about numbers, even when is masquerades behind helping people.
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Gates is a data-crat. He is a mathematical, left brained individual. He has no business evaluating teachers, determining what would make an effective teacher or driving curriculum. Data-crats like him are limiting students’ access to literature as they push for more nonfiction material like science journals in place of works of fine literary works. They see no real value to art or music as these subjects offer no measurable data.
I wonder about his ultimate agenda. He is enormously wealthy. Why isn’t he using his vast wealth to address poverty, drugs, gangs, etc? Why isn’t he addressing the student loan mess? Why is his time and money being spent to upend public education?
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“Stasification”
Pearson spies
On our kids
Stasi-fies
Their text and vids
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During China’s Cultural Revolution 1965 – 1976, Mao asked children to spy on their teachers and parents and turn them in to the Little Red Guard to be denounced and punished. I read that an estimated 2 million Chinese adults (and many were teachers), who were targeted by the teenage Red Guard, committed suicide to escape the shame and constant harassment. Any leaders in the Communist Party who protested—and there were some—were also targeted. Deng Xiaoping was one of those who protested and his adult son was tossed off the top of three story building to punish the father, who then fled south with his family where he managed to find protection from a high ranking general in the People’s Liberation Army. After Mao died, Deng Xiaoping, with support from other PLA generals, stopped the Cultural Revolution and then opened China to world trade.
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New Mexicans had an opportunity to get rid of Governor Martinez and her henchman Secretary of Education Skandera. Skandera is the big bully pushing the PARCC in New Mexico. There are enough Teachers and School Administrators that if they had voted, even half of them, in the last election Martinez and Skandera would be history along with the PARCC. Teachers in New Mexico are afraid to stand up and be counted for fear of reprisals through the unjust evaluation system that Skanera has put in place with the support of Martinez. School Administrators will not voice opposition to the PARCC, School Grading System and Teacher Evaluation System for fear of reprisals against the School Districts and individual schools. Fear is clearly evident in the schools. You can feel in the air. Looking into the eyes of the Students and Teachers one can clearly see that the freedom of speech has been taken away from them. Teachers are leaving New Mexico schools because they can no longer tolerate living in fear of the Public Education Department. Teachers are retiring early for the same reason. The Colleges of Education in New Mexico have seen a drastic drop in students wanting to become Teachers. Who would want to start a career knowing that they would live in daily fear of retribution from the State. Nobody!!! It is a sad commentary on the way things are in public education these days.
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Reading public social media accounts to see whether anyone is cheating isn’t the same thing as what the Nazis did. And it isn’t “spying” either. It’s called “test security,” and if Pearson didn’t do it, testing opponents would be the first to say that the tests were invalid as a result.
People need to stop being so hysterical.
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It is when you report a “security breach” and sick the NJDO on the school district for something that was not a security breach. They are using Gestapo like tactics and bullying school administrators.
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Ok Arne. Whatever you say.
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WT is Arne Duncan? LOL
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Or maybe a right-wing nationalist from the Great Far East? I guess.
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Are you assuming the tests are valid to begin with? Where is the evidence that these tests are valid measures of the CCSS, and that the CCSS have face validity or predictive validity relative to career and college readiness? Why is test security such a big deal when the aim is to improve teaching and learning–or so we are told over and over ad nauseum. lower the stakes and you lower the risk and the need for “security.”
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Here’s a link to evidence that using tests to evaluate teachers is NOT valid. I don’t think there is any reputable evidence that testing is valid or works.
“there is broad agreement among statisticians, psychometricians, and economists that student test scores alone are not sufficiently reliable and valid indicators of teacher effectiveness to be used in high-stakes personnel decisions, even when the most sophisticated statistical applications such as value-added modeling are employed.”
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/
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Students CANNOT be held to an adult standard. No matter what they sign they are not legally adults. It also isn’t cheating if you reveal the answers AFTER the test. Pearson is just protecting it’s test monopoly by wanting to reuse the same crappy questions over and over.
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WT,
Are you on the Pearson payroll?
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These tests do not provide the teacher with any useful information. They are a waste of time and resources. Teachers are not permitted to see the questions and answers given. The only thing the tests provide is data mining.
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I would agree that it is the new “normal” to assume corporations are monitoring social media for references to them and their products.
Initiating state level actions against an individual student — which is what set off this controversy — for what could not have been anything worse than a smidge of gossip is outrageous and entirely unjustified.
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Listen to Daddy, kids. There’s no ‘there’, there except in your hysterical, hormonal heads.
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Do the majority of Americans still believe that America is blessed by god, above all other countries? Do people understand the history behind the idea of american-exceptionalism?
Exceptionalism is the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is “exceptional” (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles. (wikipedia)
Unfortunately the comparison to Nazi Germany automatically discredits Frank Breslin’s
line of thinking for too many people.
A more in depth understanding of the sociological factors that led to the rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany needs to be understood, before the connection can be honestly made.
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Betsy,
We ARE exceptional as Americans.
We are virtually the only modern, industrialized, wealthy democratic country that does not have nationalized healthcare and that allows banks to feed parasitically off the financial livers of college students, weighing them down in unspeakable debt.
We are exceptional because we spew monied interests in other countries by using our CIA and military to help other countries overthrow any potentially “socialist” or equalizing leader. Just look at Mexico and South America.
We are exceptional because we employ drones to kill civilians as collateral damage instead of investing money and time in diplomacy and relationship building.
We scorn the French because they are so much more of an egalitarian society, and we want all of the quality of the FInnish education system without ever practicing equality here on our own soil, as 49% of American families live very near or at the poverty level, 24% of all children are at or below the poverty level, and five members of the Walton family own literally 37% of all of America’s wealth.
Yes, we are exceptional indeed.
I too am very sensitive when critics start playing the Holocaust card.
But I think there is overwhelming evidence here that people are not exploiting the plight of the 6 million plus Jews and others who perished during the atrocities. No one here is even implying the government and cronies are out to do that.
But the idea that the government is targeting a group and using very calculated propaganda to make them look bad and harmful to society (educators and public schools) and trying to control children and families with practically dictated curriculum and to the extent they are through technology is akin to the propaganda campaigns and monitoring the Third Reich managed to do. The Third Reich could only dream of having the technology we have today. How they would have jumped on it if available back then. Perish the thought.
The overclass wants someone to blame and they want to use that someone to convince others that they too should blame the “someone”. Meanwhile, the overclass puts its finger in its ears when one discusses how poverty is created, maintained, and grown in this country over the last 35 years.
And both the overclass and the little sheeple who constantly vote against their interest by voting for the overclass, consider the “R” word (Redistribution) to be more taboo than talking about their sex lives.
But redistribution of wealth is exactly what we need, and forming honest, democratically run unions is a critical start in that. Union expansionism is critical, and not with someone horrific like Randi Weingarten and others like her.
We are exceptional.
Exceptionally _____________.
Adjective of your choice . . . . .
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I would agree that we are exceptional in the ways that you described Robert.
“And both the overclass and the little sheeple who constantly vote against their interest by voting for the overclass, consider the “R” word (Redistribution) to be more taboo than talking about their sex lives.”
What the ‘sheeple’ that vote against their own financial self interest do not understand is that there already is rampant redistribution of wealth going on and it has been going on since the Reagan years. It is a redistribution of wealth when people are robbed of the worth of their labor and don’t receive a fair wage, with good benefits and a defined pension plan. It is a redistribution of wealth when our government makes back room deals and hands our tax dollars to private companies who are not required to open their books to government auditors. I am sure that I could come up a longer list of examples but my 40 min. lunch is over so I am off to teach 9 year olds about fractions…….
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Betsy, redistribution in a way opposite of the past 35 years is what’s needed. The flow needs to come back to the middle and working classes.
The flow, as you have stated, has been all wrong.
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Someone mentioned copyright infringement earlier. Interesting thought, who owns the PARCC copyright, Pearson or the state, or PARCC? Is the state paying Pearson to create the tests, in other words Pearson is a contractor? If so I would think the state owns the materials. And wouldn’t things that are state owned be owned by all of us?
Just thinking out loud here.
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No, Pearson owns the state.
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http://northdenvernews.com/parcc-why-is-pearson-so-corrupt-if-only-in-the-banal-sense/
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I am slow on the uptake, but I’ve come to believe that arguments about whether Nazi analogies are appropriate are about as useless as Nazi analogies themselves. I don’t think anyone’s ever changed their opinion based on either. I suspect the reaction to almost every Nazi analogy is either (1) “Yes, absolutely!” or (2) “Oh shut up already.” And the reaction to every argument that a Nazi analogy was or was not justified is either (1) “Yes, absolutely!” or (2) “Oh shut up already.”
To the Nazi/Stasi analogy here, I say “Oh shut up already.” Who cares.
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You think Jews don’t care? People like Diane and I should not have to bite our tongues or choose another analogy like the Stasi –which apparently is not good enough either– just because YOU don’t care. I care a lot.
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And “Oh shut up already” yourself.
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No argument here — I tell myself that twenty times a day!
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I think Jews do care. Some think comparing Pearson with the Stasi or the Nazis is ridiculous, and some think it’s not ridiculous. And neither the analogy nor the arguments about the analogy change any of their minds about whether Pearson is or is not like the Stasi or the Nazis.
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Who said anyone was trying to change opinions? There are many reasons why people write here, but you seem to assume it’s just to influence or manipulate others. STFU.
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I do tend to assume that people write in a forum like this to make arguments, but I suppose it’s true that some people write for other reasons. My view is that analogies like this are never persuade or illuminating, and almost always distract by immediately becoming sub-arguments about whether the analogy is appropriate. Obviously you have the right to say Pearson and anyone or anything else is like the Nazis for whatever reason you choose.
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I care, FLERP.
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oy vey ist mir.
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Some important technological facts to consider when assessing the seriousness of Pearson’s actions:
1. No entity can guarantee the security of your child’s private information from theft and/or misuse by criminals, hackers, unscrupulous employees or affiliate partners.
2. Every new *type* of information about your child (medical, test scores, purchases, online habits, etc) that is collected and stored by third parties presents an additional risk to your child’s privacy & security.
3. Every new *entity* who participates in the collection and storage of information about your child (sports leagues, data hosts, facebook advertisers, Google partners, etc) presents an additional risk to your child’s privacy & security.
4. Once information about your child has been collected electronically by insurance companies, schools, social media, Amazon, etc it will be retained forever.
5. Over time, sets of information collected about your child will only become more accessible and more easily exploited by those who would misuse it.
In order for Pearson to monitor US student activity on social networks in real time (as in the NJ case) they contract with the company Tracx to monitor the public feeds on social networks like Twitter. Note that this arrangement places your child’s private information in the hands of *at least* 3 entities –the school, Pearson, and Tracx– but likely more since both Tracx and Pearson surely use contractors for data storage, database cleansing, etc.
For the Tracx software to connect a specific tweet to a specific student that is actionable by a school district, it most likely cross-references twitter keywords & account details with a database of student names provided by Pearson and the school. There is nothing to prevent Tracx from retaining a database of children’s names by school, school district, etc and twitter/social media accounts, or an inventory or “problem” children or “problem” families that get red-flagged multiple times by their automated software.
It’s unclear what restrictions exist to prevent Tracx from selling/sharing information they possess about students in their database to third parties a few years from now. The data Tracx and Pearson collect would be an extremely valuable cross-reference for commercial marketing and other for-profit business intelligence purposes. It would also be extremely valuable to hackers and criminals.
Do NOT believe anyone who minimizes the risk posed by the way these entities are “protecting their products” and collecting information about our children.
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I agree with much of what you say.
However, you say “In order for Pearson to monitor US student activity on social networks in real time (as in the NJ case) they contract with the company Tracx to monitor the public feeds on social networks like Twitter. Note that this arrangement places your child’s private information in the hands of *at least* 3 entities –the school, Pearson, and Tracx– but likely more since both Tracx and Pearson surely use contractors for data storage, database cleansing, etc.”
Tweets and other social media are usually not private. Too many people think they are and this is a serious misconception. There are benefits to the connectedness that Twitter, Facebook, and other social media provide, but it comes with a major privacy tradeoff. Twitter is publicly available and if geo-tagging is enabled it carries location data too.
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Good for you. You made an analogy that many of us who write at OEN also see.
The propaganda and outrageous lying. The NSA and data collection and the increasingly militaristic nature of our police is noticed by major writers and THINKERS at OEN.
The stressed out population who have to decide between food , shelter or health care, let alone education.
The war narrative.
All of it has a familiar ring to students of the thirties.
This is a very frightening time, and there are thousands of nuclear weapons out there, many in the nada of fanatic regimes.
The analogy is a good one. So what if people disagree
Shut- up FLERP!
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I think the Nazism analogy is fair. So is comparing Pearson/PARCC’s and SBAC’s surveillance with what happened in the USSR (probably still in Russia today), and China. Students spied upon and reported on their parents ANDY their teachers. This current situation turns that on its head, but is equally bad. If we do not express outrage and get this stopped, it will become precedent for even greater invasions of privacy and police-state tactics.
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People who recklessly make Nazi comparisons should be shipped to a concentration camp for a week, and then asked whether they still think that having someone read their public Twitter account is quite the same level of intrusion.
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WT, any suggestions for concentration camp destinations? Since I lost both my maternal and paternal families in the Holocaust, I think I am free to make or permit analogies when they refer to police state behavior.
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Or, perhaps you should go to the Far East and join in with the cooky right-wing conspiracy theorists and history denier groups by holding “a 12-layer Nationalist Rising Sun Flag.” At your own risk of being called traitor by abandoning “Star Spangled Banner.”
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I’m sorry for your family history, but it doesn’t give a blanket license to make such inflammatory and reckless comparisons. Indeed, someone who has lost family in prison camps should, of all people, have more sensitivity than to claim that it’s just as bad for someone to read public Twitter comments for the sole purpose of maintaining test security (so that other kids don’t get an unfair advantage).
The New Jersey DOE has a very sensible response: http://education.state.nj.us/broadcasts/2015/MAR/17/13363/PARCC%20Test%20Security%20and%20social%20media%20(2).pdf
“Fairness in testing is not a new issue, whether this involves teacher-developed tests, school tests or our
statewide assessments. This means that students should not be given an unfair advantage by having access
to test content ahead of time.
“If an educator in a local district or staff from NJDOE observes a public, online posting by anyone, be it an adult or a student, that wrongfully releases test content, we must take action to ensure the
fairness and security of our statewide assessment programs.
“The last several days have made evident that a large number of both educators and parents do not understand the nature of social media. To be clear, anything that anyone posts publicly on Twitter can be viewed by anyone anywhere in the world, instantaneously. There is a very clear statement at the top of Twitter’s Terms of Service. In their words, “What you say on Twitter may be viewed all around the world instantly. You are what you Tweet!” at: https://twitter.com/tos?lang=en
We should work to ensure that students and parents understand that statements that are posted publicly online are not private. In fact, public statements made online are both more durable and have far wider distribution than printed media.”
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WT, I suggest you rent Mel Brooks’ movie “The Producers.” Be sure to see the production number of “Springtime for Hitler.” Sorry you can’t see the Broadway show.
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I’m sorry for your family history, but it doesn’t give a blanket license to make such inflammatory and reckless comparisons. Indeed, someone who has lost family in prison camps should, of all people, have more sensitivity than to claim that it’s just as bad for someone to read public Twitter comments for the sole purpose of maintaining test security (so that other kids don’t get an unfair advantage).
The New Jersey DOE has a very sensible response: education.state.nj.us/broadcasts/2015/MAR/17/13363/PARCC%20Test%20Security%20and%20social%20media%20(2).pdf
“Fairness in testing is not a new issue, whether this involves teacher-developed tests, school tests or our
statewide assessments. This means that students should not be given an unfair advantage by having access
to test content ahead of time.
“If an educator in a local district or staff from NJDOE observes a public, online posting by anyone, be it an adult or a student, that wrongfully releases test content, we must take action to ensure the
fairness and security of our statewide assessment programs.
“The last several days have made evident that a large number of both educators and parents do not understand the nature of social media. To be clear, anything that anyone posts publicly on Twitter can be viewed by anyone anywhere in the world, instantaneously. There is a very clear statement at the top of Twitter’s Terms of Service. In their words, “What you say on Twitter may be viewed all around the world instantly. You are what you Tweet!”
We should work to ensure that students and parents understand that statements that are posted publicly online are not private. In fact, public statements made online are both more durable and have far wider distribution than printed media.”
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WT,
I believe in free speech, for you and for me. I will decide what is appropriate for me, you can decide what is appropriate for you. What you cannot do is tell me what is appropriate for me. So, buzz off.
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There is an option. Any children, teachers or parents taking photographs of the PARCC or SBAC tests may also send those classified pictures to WikiLeaks, and if WikiLeaks decides to post them on the Internet, then the source stays anonymous and protected from harassment and punishment from Pearson and their corporate or school district puppets and lackeys.
WikiLeaks accepts classified, censored or otherwise restricted material of political, diplomatic or ethical significance. WikiLeaks does not accept rumour, opinion or other kinds of first hand reporting or material that is already publicly available.
https://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/WikiLeaks:Submissions
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Many of us who don’t use our real names when we write here do so because we know that we could be tracked and lose our jobs for speaking our minds. We do not truly have freedom of speech when we have to leave our rights at the workhouse door because the rights of businesses supercede the rights of individuals.
I think alarm bells should be ringing by the fact that it is considered perfectly acceptable for proprietary rights to trump individual rights. That is a reflection of how inequitable, unjust and oppressive our society has become for individual people. The Constitution does not say “We the businesses,” but SCOTUS and politicians value businesses over people. I sure wish the government would get the hell out of my personal business, but alas, I am merely an individual.
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Don’t forget that we’ve been using the War on Drugs to have students monitor their parents for years.
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I’m just wondering why school districts believe they have to do everything the contractor says. They’re the entire customer base for Pearson or any other testing contractor. They have an enormous amount of power in that relationship. Why don’t they use it?
They don’t have to agree to any of these terms. They shouldn’t agree to them if it means they’re picking up the cost of protecting the contractor’s product.
Perhaps I’m wrong and they get the best deal they can but I can’t help but wonder why the schools always seem to be in this subordinate, weak position where they’re accepting directions and mandates from the contractor when the school is the client.
Contractors go out of business if US public schools don’t buy from contractors, and the reverse isn’t true: US public schools will do just fine without this or any other individual contractor.
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I would guess that the school districts have been pressured (explicitly or implicitly) to accept the terms by those above them (state governments) who, in turn feel pressure from DC.
When a relationship is based on fear (as it clearly is in this case), the one in a subordinate position (serf?) bends over backward to ensure that he will not feel the wrath of the overlord.
Fear-based relationships have a perverse logic and needless to say, are not a good model for schools.
That Pearson has effectively co-opted school officials to act as their eyes and ears — and enforcers — to “deal with” students discussing the tests is the most disturbing part of what is going on. (That’s the kind of thing the Stasi did). More disturbing than Pearson’s own monitoring of social media sites.
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I think districts agree to abide by and help enforce these security policies not because they’re bullied our outwitted by testing contractors, but because districts recognize that the policies are essential to the project that they’re carrying out.
With any test, even tests that are written by teachers, there are at least two issues: (1) the validity of the test (i.e., does the test measure what it’s supposed to measure) and (2) the “cost” of producing the test, with cost defined broadly to include time and effort, as well as money. Think of the college professor who writes her own final exam. She can write a completely new one every year, but that costs a lot of time and effort, and she might find that the classwide results vary a lot from year to year, suggesting that some of her exams are harder than others. Or she can reuse the same test every year. That’s a very low cost approach in terms of drafting the exam. But what if a student somehow obtains a copy of the exam and discloses it, maybe for money, maybe to help out his fraternity brothers, maybe just for the heck of it. If that happens, one of the things that the test will be measuring the following year is whether the student was one of the people who got a copy of the test. That makes the test unfair and it also makes the test results invalid.
High-stakes standardized testing involves the same issues, but moreso. The larger the pool of test-takers is, the greater the risk of unauthorized disclosures. And if the stakes are high for not only students, but also teachers and schools, there are huge incentives from many directions to obtain or disclose test content. You could eliminate some of these incentives by writing a completely new test each year, but that is very expensive, and it also makes it impossible to compare students against prior students based on their responses to core sets of re-used questions. When a big part of the high-stakes testing regime is based on measuring year-over-year growth, that is a serious problem.
In other words, if you’re going to have high-stakes standardized testing, people need to feel that the tests are fair and valid. That requires the sort of monitoring that Pearson and the states seem to be doing. For people who want to throw away the high-stakes tests to begin with, it’s easy to oppose the security measures. But people and school districts who support the high-stakes tests have no choice but to enforce the security measures.
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Actually, the two primary issues around testing are validity and reliability. Ignoring reliability and throwing cost into the picture just tells us where your own priorities are.
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I’m not a testing expert, Ed. I wrote that “there are at least two issues,” and that they include cost and validity. Feel free to explain how including “reliability” as an issue would change my analysis. Also feel free to tell me where my own priorities are, because frankly I’m not sure myself.
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Or just take it from Anthony Cody, who says exactly exactly what I’m saying. I assume his priorities are beyond reproach here.
http://www.livingindialogue.com/high-stakes-testing-makes-surveillance-necessary/
“By creating a state-sponsored ‘accountability’ system that attaches heavy consequences to student performance on tests, the state and its corporate test-making partners have created a compelling need for extensive surveillance of everyone that accountability system touches. Teacher and administrator evaluations and thus jobs depend on these scores. Schools may be closed. Funding to schools is increased or reduced. And the tests are supposed to determine which students are ready for college.
All these consequences create reasons for people to game the system – and this has been the hallmark of NCLB from its inception. The ‘Texas Miracle’ that inspired NCLB was based on the creative practice of holding back the 9th graders whose scores would make the schools look bad. Result? A miraculous rise in scores, a Texas governor who bragged he was an ‘education governor’ on his way to the White House, and brought us a whole system of accountability based on test scores. And NCLB has made test-based accountability a part of the basic contract between the Federal government and the schools that receive federal funding.
Any system that imparts heavy consequences for success or failure must have intense security. How do you impose test security on a system that must test as many as fifty million school children every year, when many millions of these students have smart phones and Facebook accounts? You MUST have a surveillance apparatus. You must also have local District personnel act as your deputies in monitoring these activities, and in meting out consequences for those who violate your rules. It is all an inescapable outgrowth of creating a system that rewards and punishes people based on student test scores.”
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Through the lens of Critical Pedagogy and Foucault’s ideas, state education systems have always sought to surveil and control both teachers and students. Through schools the state controls access to discourses: who may speak, when they may speak, where they may speak, and what may be said. What Pearson is doing with the complicity of administrators – troubling as it may be – simply satisfies this need for total control of students and extends it beyond the school walls and into online spaces. I’m not defending Pearson, but arguing that surveillance and domination are woven into the fabric of an educational system designed to reproduce the inequities and statification of the existing social order.
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“Pearson’s Eyes and Ears”
School officials are eyes and ears
For Pearson, whom the teacher fears
They listen in for student chat
About the test, and punish that
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Analogies to Stasi &Nazi propaganda machines are somewhat accurate in that these political systems used planned systematic propaganda tactics on the population to justify greater & greater atrocities. Much like the failing schools and bad teacher images permeated by corporate reformers to justify greater & greater accountability.
According to Sheldon Wolin, these early 19th century political power systems fail to address influence of consumerism and competition under capitalism as a mechanism of totalitarian control. He refers to our current political system as ‘inverted totalitarianism’. I think much of ed-reform meets the same criteria as Wolin’s Inverted Totalitarianism. Read about it here & see what you think:
http://www.truthdig.com/search/results?q=inverted%20totalitarianism%20chris%20hedges
Wolin, who taught political philosophy at the University of California in Berkeley and at Princeton, in his book “Democracy, Incorporated” uses the phrase inverted totalitarianism to describe our system of power. Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader. It finds its expression in the anonymity of the corporate state. It purports to cherish democracy, patriotism and the Constitution while cynically manipulating internal levers to subvert and thwart democratic institutions. Political candidates are elected in popular votes by citizens, but they must raise staggering amounts of corporate funds to compete. They are beholden to armies of corporate lobbyists in Washington or state capitals who write the legislation. A corporate media controls nearly everything we read, watch or hear and imposes a bland uniformity of opinion or diverts us with trivia and celebrity gossip. In classical totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi fascism or Soviet communism, economics was subordinate to politics. “Under inverted totalitarianism the reverse is true,” Wolin writes. “Economics dominates politics—and with that domination comes different forms of ruthlessness.”
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Some who have commented above have obviously confused “comparison” with “equivalence”.
Pearson is quite obviously not equivalent” “to the NAZI’s or to the Stasi. Not even close.
But the author (Frank Breslin) never claimed they were. Not even remotely.
He pointed out a similarity in one very specific regard:
“Pearson is encouraging educators to spy on their students’ privacy, thereby trying to undermine the integrity of the relationship that students have with their teachers. This is vitiating the entire tradition of student/teacher trust that has been a sacred tradition between them for thousands of years. They’re making educators complicit in this illegal and immoral spying on children, so that teachers are becoming adjuncts of a Police State.
“This is what the Nazis did to teachers during the Reich — having teachers spying on parents by having children report back to them what parents were saying against the Reich. ”
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Jcgrim, you ‘put’ your analysis far better thanI could in my reactive posts. Thank you. Your analysis, with citation to the work of Sheldon Wolin, takes us farther down the path of comprehending the ubiquity of what is occurring not only in one arena, but also cross the other arenas of our public (and private) lives.
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The President of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. (founded with money from the West German government), is an emeritus board member of Fordham Institute.
Mother Jones reported this fall, at least one major shareholder of Pearson, is a foreign government.
Political concerns about American security, are selective.
Petraeus can share intel, lie about it to the FBI and, make a deal for no jail time.
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Social media doesn’t have to be public, and student’s digital communications should not be monitored and reported on in this way. With DSTRUX, users can take control of their social media postings, regain their privacy, and prevent this type of monitoring.
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Craig Kennedy, Pres. of the German Marshall Fund, said in 2007,
“There’s a shortage of good ideas to soak up the money in the philanthropic world (of the U.S.).”
Mr. Kennedy has a moral obligation to identify the villainthropic bad ideas and to work to stop them from harming children and destroying American democracy. The claimed goal of German Marshall Fund, is to further democracy….
But, it seems unlikely, because Kennedy was Pres. of the Joyce Foundation and then, went to work for a commodities trader, Richard J. Dennis, of Chicago. He is/was an independent trustee of a mutual fund.
An internet search shows the German Marshall Fund gave a $1,000,000 to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Not surprisingly, cross referencing charter schools and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, turned up entries.
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