Archives for the month of: March, 2015
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Has the Media Been Fair to Common Core Testing? Russo Vs. Merrow

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
31

Blogger Alexander Russo informed a number of other writers that he was preparing an article about the coverage of the Opt Out movement for the Columbia Journalism Review, and Russo invited them to comment. Apparently the only one who did was John Merrow of PBS.

 

Russo wrote an article that was critical of Merrow’s television coverage, which he apparently considered too sympathetic to the Opt Out people and insufficiently willing to acknowledge how many students compliantly took the tests.

 

Russo believed that reporters were putting too much emphasis on the conflicts, giving too much attention to the protestors:

 

…so far, at least, much of the media’s coverage of this spring’s Common Core testing rollout has been guilty of over-emphasizing the extent of the conflict, speculating dire consequences based on little information, and over-relying on anecdotes and activists’ claims rather than digging for a broader sampling of verified numbers. The real story—that the rollout of these new, more challenging tests is proceeding surprisingly well—could be getting lost.

 

Merrow replied succinctly here, explaining how he shaped a story that had 8 minutes on national television.

 

Anthony Cody summarized the debate here, along with his own views. Cody says that Russo wants to appear to be above the fray, when in fact he is supporting and defending the Common Core testing and criticizing those who pay attention to the protesters. Russo would like to convince reporters that there is nothing worth reporting except the success of the tests. One might have said the same things about civil rights protesters and anti-war protesters in the 1960s and 1970s. Covering the protests didn’t change history; the protesters did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Common Core, Opt Out, Testing

Student Data for Sale, Thanks to Congress

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
19

Student privacy activists are outraged by the legislation that’s being rushed through Congress that would legalize industry’s right to confidential data about children without parental consent.

 

This is from Leonie Haimson and Rachel Strickland of Student Privacy Matters:

 

Rep. Luke Messer (IN) and Rep. Jared Polis (CO) are introducing a bill in the House that would allow vendors of online programs used in schools to collect, share and commercialize the personal information of students. Rep. Polis has said that they intend to rush this bill through the House, without amendment or debate. Parents and privacy advocates CANNOT let this happen.

We need your help. Please visit our action page to send a letter and then make a quick call to your US Representatives.

For more information, see articles in POLITICO and The New York Times, and read the comments of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy available here.

Thanks,

Rachael Stickland and Leonie Haimson

Co-chairs, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

http://www.studentprivacymatters.org

 

 

Here is today’s story in politico.com by Stephanie Simon:

 

 

“STUDENT PRIVACY BILL UNDER FIRE: A bipartisan student privacy bill to be introduced in the House today aims to reassure parents that their children’s data is safe. But the bill lets companies continue to collect huge amounts of intimate information on students, compile it into profiles of their aptitudes and attitudes – and then mine that data for commercial gain. It also permits the companies to sell personal information about students to colleges and potential employers, according to a near-final draft reviewed by Morning Education. Microsoft has already endorsed the bill. And the chief sponsors, Republican Rep. Luke Messer and Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, say they’re confident it will quickly earn bipartisan support in both chambers. It will likely get a push as well from the White House, which worked closely with Messer and Polis on the language. But privacy advocates and parent activists see the bill as deeply flawed. It’s riddled with “huge loopholes” and “escape clauses,” said Khaliah Barnes, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s student privacy project.

 

– Consider a provision barring companies from selling personal information about students. That seems rock-solid. Yet there’s an exception: A company can sell data if a student or parent requests it be shared “in furtherance of post-secondary education or employment opportunities.” An online textbook, tutorial service or gaming app could likely fulfill this requirement by asking kids to check a box if they want to hear from colleges or employers interested in students just like them. I have more here: http://politico.pro/1CPMUf3

 

– Industry has opposed any federal privacy law, out of concern that it would stifle innovation. Hoping to showcase the benefits of that innovation, the Software Information and Industry Association and the trade association TechAmerica have launched the “Smarter Schools Project,” which highlights classrooms using technology wisely. More: http://bit.ly/1CHTPXw

 

– Some ed-tech start-ups, meanwhile, are moving aggressively to showcase their own commitment to protecting privacy. The company Kickboard is sharing privacy protection advice with other start ups. Clever posted its privacy policy on GitHub, which lets readers track any changes. And when parent activists took to Twitter to question how a startup called LearnSprout was using student data, the company responded by asking them for help making sure the data was protected. Months of dialog followed. LearnSprout unveils its new approach today: The company promises that it will never sell or rent personally identifiable information about students and will never use that information to improve or market its own products. Read more about the dialog from LearnSprout Marketing Director Paul Smith: http://bit.ly/1GCQUNw and from Rachael Stickland and Leonie Haimson of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy: http://bit.ly/1CGVgnz.”

Categories For-Profit, Privacy and Privacy Rights, Students

NY Post Investigates Missing Test Questions

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
11

I recently posted testing expert Fred Smith’s discovery that several test questions on New York’s Common Core exam had “disappeared.”

Susan Edelman of the Néw York Post read Fred Smith’s article and went searching for the answer. She found it.

“These tests were rotten to the Common Core.

“Student performance on four questions on the much-ballyhooed state English Language Arts exams was secretly scrubbed by state ­education officials because too many students didn’t answer them or were confused by them.

“After the tests were given last April 1-3, the state decided to eliminate the results of one multiple-choice question on the seventh-grade ELA exam, two on the third-grade ELA exam, and a four-point essay on the third-grade test.
Six of 55 points were whacked from the third-grade test.

“The axed essay question, called a “constructive response,” aimed to gauge a prime goal of the Common Core standards — whether students think critically and write cohesively, citing evidence from a text to support their ideas.

“They produced a defective product, and don’t want you to know about it,” said Fred Smith, a former city test analyst who discovered the missing items.

“In touting an uptick in scores last August, the state didn’t mention the erased results. The number of city kids rated “proficient” increased 2.9 percent from 2013 on the third-grade ELA test and 3.9 percent on the seventh-grade test.”

In short, by removing these four questions, the State Education Department produced a slight increase in scores, which enabled then-State Commissioner John King to assert that the state was making progress.

Categories New York, Pearson, Standardized Testing

Jersey Jazzman: State Commissioner David Hespe Should Be Ashamed

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
3

New Jersey State Commissioner of Education David Hespe was appointed by Governor Chris Christie, which suggests that one should have low expectations for starters. But Jersey Jazzman decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, because at least he wasn’t Chris Cerf, who resigned to work for Joel Klein at Rupert Murdoch’s company.

 

But when Hespe approved the expansion of a charter school in Hoboken, claiming that it would have no segregative effect on the public schools, JJ couldn’t believe that Hespe could say this with a straight claim. JJ shows that the charter schools in Hoboken do not serve the same population as those in the public schools: they are whiter and more advantaged. Of course, the expansion of the Hoboken Dual Language School would have a segregative effect! JJ lays out the facts and figures.

 

JJ warns:

 

The charter school community’s claims to the moral high ground are null and void when Hoboken’s charter school expansion is based on the distortions found in Hespe’s letter. He and his department have turned a blind eye to the real and serious effects of the charters on the city’s school district.

 

In doing so, Hespe and his top brass at the NJDOE show they are ideologues, uninterested in a rational assessment of the consequences of their policies. And, again, it’s not just charter schools: PARCC, One Newark, the state superintendents, and all the other issues before this department are not being evaluated with rigorous, evidence-based methods.

 

I had high hopes for David Hespe; they have now been dashed. Hunker down, New Jersey: when it comes to the NJDOE, things won’t get better before they get worse.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

Pasi Sahlberg Is Speaking in Los Angeles at 6 P.M. Today

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
2

 

If you are anywhere near Los Angeles today, you have a chance to see and meet the great Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg. He is speaking at USC at 6 p.m. in the Grace Ford Salvatori Hall, Room 106. The topic is his book, “Finnish Lessons 2.0.” Of course, he will have much to say about our education system.

 

He will talk for about an hour, then take questions from the audience. See him if you possibly can. He gives a wonderful presentation.

 

Categories Los Angeles

Privacy Advocates: Proposed Student “Privacy” Bill in Congress Benefits Vendors, Not Students

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
10

Parent advocates say that the tech industry desperately wants to protect student privacy from being invaded, except when the tech industry finds it useful and necessary.  The tech industry wants to limit data mining, except under certain circumstances that permit data mining. The bill would make it unnecessary to obtain parental consent for invasions of student privacy.

 

Contact: Rachael Stickland, 303-204-1272, info@studentprivacymatters.org
Leonie Haimson, 917-435-9329, leoniehaimson@gmail.com
http://www.studentprivacymatters.org

 

Messer/Polis Student Privacy Bill Protects Commercial Interests of Vendors not Kids

 

 

The bill just introduced by Representatives Messer and Polis addresses few if any of the concerns that parents have concerning the way their children’s privacy and safety have been put at risk by the widespread disclosure of their personal data by schools, districts and vendors.
Leonie Haimson, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy said, “The bill doesn’t require any parental notification or consent before schools share personal data with third parties, or address any of the current weaknesses in FERPA. It wouldn’t stop the surveillance of students by Pearson or other companies, or the collection and sharing of huge amounts of highly sensitive student information, as inBloom was designed to do.”
“All the bill does is ban online services utilized by schools from targeting ads to kids – or selling their personal information, though companies could still advertise to kids through their services and or sell their products to parents, as long as this did not result from the personal information gathered through their services. Even that narrow prohibition is incomplete, as vendors would still be allowed to target ads to students as long as the ads were selected based on information gathered via student’s single online session or visit – with the information not retained over time.”
Rachael Stickland, Colorado co-chair of the Parent Coalition: “The bill doesn’t bar many uses of personal information that parents are most concerned about, including vendor redisclosures to other third parties, or data-mining to improve their products or create profiles that could severely limit student’s success by stereotyping them and limiting their opportunities.”
Other critical weaknesses of the bill:
Parents would not be able to delete any of the personal information obtained by a vendor from their children, even upon request, unless the data resulted from an “optional” feature of the service chosen by the parent and not the district or school.
The bill creates a huge loophole that actually could weaken existing privacy law by allowing vendors to collect, use or disclose personal student information in a manner contrary to their own privacy policy or their contract with the school or district, as long as the company obtains consent from the school or district. It is not clear in what form that consent could be given, whether in an email or phone call, but even if a parent was able to obtain the school’s contract or see the vendor’s privacy policy, it could provide false reassurance if it turns out the school or district had secretly given permission to the company to ignore it.
Vendors would be able to redisclose students’ personal information to an unlimited number of additional third parties, as long as these disclosures were made for undefined “K12 purposes.”
Vendors would be able to redisclose individual student’s de-identified or aggregate information for any reason or to anyone, without restrictions or safeguards to ensure that the child’s information could not be easily re-identified through widely available methods.
Rachael Stickland concludes: “This bill reads as though it was written to suit the purposes of for-profit vendors, and not in the interests of children. It should be rejected by anyone committed to the goal of protecting student privacy from commercial gain and exploitation.”
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Categories Data and Data Mining, Privacy and Privacy Rights, Students

NY Daily News Writer: Cuomo’s Faith in Common Core Tests Is Baffling

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
22

Alyssa Katz is a member of the editorial board of the Néw York Daily News, which has been a reliable cheerleader for the Common Core, high-stakes testing, and all of Governor Cuomo’s bad ideas to punish public schools, teachers, and children.

 

But Alyssa Katz has a singular advantage over most editorial writers: she is a parent of a child in public school. She has seen what Common Core looks like and how confusing the sample questions on the tests are.

 

She understands why Cuomo’s popularity rating has plummeted and why it is rock bottom among public school parents. He has only a 50% approval rating. 28% approve of his education ideas, as do only 21% of public school parents.

 

Since Cuomo has asserted his education leadership in a state where he has no legal authority over education (he does not appoint the state board or the state commissioner), parents will blame him for incoherent Common Core assignments and for the failure of their child on Common Core tests. If favorite teachers are fired for low scores, it will be Cuomo’s fault.

 

Katz has had it.

 

She writes:

 

“With kids prepping for April tests, anxieties are again mounting. At least, that’s the view from my dining-room table, where my third-grader grapples with hair-tearing homework , and where her guiding inspiration for writing assignments is a laminated card drilling “RADD” — for Restate, Answer, Detail, Detail.

 

“If the questions on kids’ homework and, by extension, their standardized tests, are tough to understand, how does it make sense to base high-stakes teacher employment decisions on those tests?

 

“Take this math assignment: “Draw an array. Then write a fact family to describe your array.” The sound you hear is sweat trickling down my husband’s face.

 

“The question that follows asks whether it’s correct to surmise that a family whose members have 14 legs consists of 7 people. One kid answered — it became an internet meme — “Yes, because 14÷2 = 7, but not everyone has two legs. Go to http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org.”

 

“My breaking point came with a math problem asking kids to combine Grover Cleveland’s electoral votes won in 1884, 1888 and 1892, a sum that would mean nothing to even the most obsessive presidential historian.”

Categories Common Core, Cuomo, Andrew, Parents, Testing

New York: Administrators, Teachers, and Parents Oppose Cuomo’s Flawed Teacher Evaluation Plan

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
18

The New York Times has a front-page story today about the widespread opposition to Governor Cuomo’s absurd teacher evaluation plan, which would base 50% of the evaluation on student test scores, 35% on the snap evaluation of an independent observer, and only 15% on the school’s principal. The story focuses on Southold, New York, whose superintendent David Gamberg (as reported this morning in the first post) sent a letter to parents explaining their right to opt out of the state testing. The story also shows that parents are opposed to the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, which will steal time from instruction and cause many schools to drop the arts and other subjects that matter to students.

 

Unfortunately, the only research cited in the story (though not by name) is the controversial Raj Chetty study that made the astounding discovery that students with high scores are likelier to go to college and likelier to make slightly more money than those with lower scores. The story does not mention the warning by the American Statistical Association that student test scores should not be used to rate individual teachers, and that doing so might undermine the quality of education. Nor does it mention the joint statement of the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association, offering a similar caution about the inaccuracy, instability, and invalidity of ratings derived from test scores.

 

Junk science is not good science, even when it is endorsed by such eminences as Arne Duncan, President Obama, Scott Walker (Governor of Wisconsin), Rick Snyder (Governor of Michigan), Rick Scott (Governor of Florida), Jeb Bush (former Governor of Florida), and Andrew Cuomo.

Categories New York, Teacher Evaluations, VAM (value-added modeling)

Schneider Explains PARCC’s Security Policy

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
9

In response to the public outrage over Pearson monitoring of students’ social media, PARCC released a statement describing its fairness and security policy.

Mercedes Schneider discusses it here. Read her suggestion about the best way to protect test security.

Categories Common Core, Privacy and Privacy Rights, Students, Testing

Long Island Superintendent Gamberg Tells Parents How to Opt Out

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2015 //
6

David Gamberg, superintendent of schools in Greenport and Southold, two neighboring towns on the North Fork of Long Island in Néw York, sent a letter home to parents, outlining the procedure they should follow if they don’t want their child to take the Common Core tests.

He assured parents that students will not be compelled to “sit and stare,” a punitive approach in some districts.

An enlightened educator, Gamberg is a strong supporter of the arts in schools. The elementary school in Southold has its own orchestra and a vegetable garden where children raise food for the cafeteria.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New York, Opt Out, Parents, Students, Testing
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