Angie Sullivan, elementary teacher in Nevada, reports that the state finally put new money into the schools. But not for children or instruction. For Big Data.
Nevada is systematically destroying its public schools. It has authorized charters, some of the lowest performing in the nation. It has adopted a universal voucher program, whose only requirement is that the student previously attended public school for 100 days. It is already one of the worst-funded public school systems in the nation.
Angie writes:
“We spent money.
“And it’s another computer database.
“And it doesn’t work yet.
And we are supposed to believe it is for our safety?
“And this will be necessary and important to who since it is not supposed to have any identifiable information? People outside the state who do not care about our kids?
“http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/education/states-debut-new-super-data-system-hurt-bad-information
“These are my questions:
“1. Does this database include charters which use tax payer money?
“2. Does this database include voucher recipients (homeschoolers and private schoolers) who use tax payer money?
“3. Does this database include for-profit and non-profit higher education – especially if students at those institutions have students benefitting from government loans?
“It would be difficult to be transparent and accountable unless every group using tax payer money was included.
“Especially if the purpose is to make every child participate in a longitudinal invasive study from preschool to career – possibly death.
“Sometimes I really worry. And this is one of those times.
“The privacy invasion and labeling is not helpful or necessary for me as a teacher or to my students.
“Statistical sampling has been used on purpose for good reason – routinely documenting everything and paying large amounts to store it or compare kids all over the nation at very young ages is weird and scary.
“For ten years we have over tested and over documented and it has helped ZERO kids. We are doing worse than we did before testing and becoming data driven. Across the nation, these number based reforms are failing.
“We are doing worse – money is being spent on the wrong remedies using assumptions based on numbers and return on investment formulas.
“My students are more than a score.
“I need supplies and support more than I need another database. And teachers need to be using best practice and spend almost all the instructional day on instruction -not preparing for a test or a report for a politician who does not know their name.
“These numbers have not helped me or my students get things we actually need and we have waited 15 years.
“God help us all – creating a record that follows babies into adulthood. What for?
“I’m so worried.
“Angie”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Maybe Nevada has just decided to skip the middle man. There’s the tests, the kids, and the data. Why not just skip the kids. Makes for cleaner data.
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“Weird and scary” is where we are in public education. It is not going get any better unless the public stands up and fights for quality public education.
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In Nevada the public seems to want to get rid of public education and they elect those that share their viewpoint. I hope to retire in a few years and leave Nevada. The libertarians have taken it over and they have just started the destruction.
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So SAD!
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Angie,
While I share your dismay with Nevada’s “Longitudinal Data System” for public school students I’m concerned about one of your misleading questions. Just for sake of clarification regarding question 2:
“Does this database include voucher recipients (homeschoolers and private schoolers) who use tax payer money?”
A. These students are not “voucher recipients”, rather they will be “ESA Grant Opt-in Children” receiving their education from a “state approved participating entity” which may be a private school, college, online school, tutor/tutoring agency or the parent. This is a new “4th Option” for parents to meet the compulsory school attendance law in Nevada. The ESA Grant Parent will be able to choose one or a combination of these participating entities to provide the child’s education.
B. An ESA Opt-in Child’s “data” WILL BE included in the state longitudinal data system, including their PII, annual standardized test results, and any other type of data collected by the state on said child.
C. ESA Opt-in students CANNOT, by law, be private school students nor homeschool students. Both these groups are EXCLUDED from the new “ESA Program” unless they are enrolled in a public school for 100 days and then “apply” for the grant. But once enrolled in a public school, the child is BY LAW no longer a “private school student” nor a “homeschool child”. Further, no data on a private school child (parent pays tuition out of their own pocket) nor a homeschool child may be held in the state’s longitudinal data system.
D. Please understand that HOMESCHOOLING is a separate legal educational option that the parent provides at their own expense. Homeschool students are not governed nor controlled by the public education system precisely because their parent(s) receives NO MONEY from the government. Homeschools operate under NRS 392.700, not public school law. A homeschool parent submits a “Notification of Intent to Homeschool” to the local school district that MAY NOT be shared with the state and information can only be “released” with the parent’s permission. A NV homeschool student may “participate” in a public school class on a “space available basis”, determined by the school principal, but is not “enrolled” in the public school to do so. A homeschool parent receives no “direct funding” from the state. Again, homeschooling is a LEGAL, NON-GOVERNMENT FUNDED educational option in Nevada UNRELATED to the new ESA Grant Program.
Nevada Homeschool Network advocates for the right of parents to direct the education of their child free from control of the publicly funded school system. During the 2015 Nevada Legislative Session, NHN lobbied to PROTECT homeschool freedom by ensuring that the homeschool law was not used as a “vehicle” for this ESA grant program. We hope that public officials, state and local school administrators, teachers, and parents understand clearly that the ESA Grant Program is not “homeschooling”. For more information on homeschooling in Nevada please see our website at http://www.nevadahomeschoolnetwork.com .
Respectfully,
Barbara Dragon
NHN Officer
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