The Baltimore County Public Schools are embarking on a risky gamble that will put all students online. At present, there is no research base to prove the value of this expensive venture. What we can predict is two nefarious consequences: 1) the computers will be used for”embedded assessment,” so that students are tested daily or continually without knowing it. Second, the students will be data mined continually, and their personally identifiable information will be available to third parties or subject to hacking.
A teacher sent the following expression of concern about this reckless plunge into technology:
“Our local school system, Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS), is undertaking a $270 million dollar technology initiative (once entitled the Instructional Digital Conversion, but rebranded as the catchier STAT, “Students and Teachers Accessing Tomorrow”), with the goal of setting up a one-to-one computer tablet and online learning program for its 110,000 students. The program reaches from first grade to twelfth, though the complete rollout has occurred only in the elementary grades thus far; the middle school and high school program has been slowed due to implementation issues. Its stated goal is to offer “personalized learning” for every student and to “equip every student with the critical 21st century skills to be globally competitive.”
“As attractive as this sounds, however, there is limited evidence about the effectiveness of a system-wide one-to-one tablet program; no input has been garnered from parents, and the expectation is that teachers will fully embrace the program without question (not only were technology teachers left out of the conversation, their positions were eliminated from the BCPS system altogether). This is taking place in a school district that is in desperate need of improvements to infrastructure, transportation, class size reduction, and social programs, issues that have been financially pushed to the side in favor of STAT.
“A series of Baltimore County Public Schools blog posts, press releases, and promotional videos preceded the rollout of the STAT program, which officially began in August 2014 in a small number of test schools; anecdotal evidence of the benefits to students of a one-to-one computer program was emphasized throughout, and numerous “partnerships” were quickly established with educational technology companies. The school superintendent and other key administrative personnel participated in several speaking opportunities and conference appearances, often sponsored by those same technology companies; almost immediately the STAT program received praise, starting with awards from online media organizations, also backed by corporate interests. The program had been in place for less than a full school year and was still in a limited testing phase, yet was getting national and even international attention, with the superintendent traveling to a technology symposium in South Korea to discuss the implementation.
“While a certain level of promotion of an initiative can be expected, the close relationship between school system administrators and the technology vendors that serve the system raises questions of conflict of interest. Two vendors have produced infomercial-style videos at two of the test schools, praising the hardware and software that the school has adopted. The superintendent also sits on the advisory committee for the Education Research and Development Institute, with a mission to “provide a forum for dialogue between outstanding educational leaders and committed corporate partners,” many of which are vendors for the system.
“Shortly before the beginning of the technology push, the superintendent also repurposed the Baltimore County Public Schools Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that had typically handled donations to local schools from area businesses. The new mission was to focus on “system-based projects,” including the STAT program and associated curriculum. In organizing the annual “State of the Schools” event for BCPS, the Educational Foundation has received sponsorships from numerous vendors of both hardware and software for the system, including a $50,000 sponsorship from Advance Path Academics.
“A preliminary analysis of publically available data from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) indicates that the test schools for the STAT program are performing below their non-STAT counterparts on the PARCC assessments; official outcome data will not be evaluated by the school system until the third year of the program, at which point many multi-year contracts for technology services will already be in place.
“The STAT initiative comes at a critical time of need for infrastructure and program improvements across the school system. Fifty-two county schools lack air conditioning, and district-wide closures due to excessive heat have become an issue with a school year that begins in August and ends in mid June.
“Enrollment and class size have been steadily growing, with school construction lagging far behind. The bus transportation system suffers from too few drivers running too many routes. A rapidly rising number of impoverished students lack the simple basics of enough food (47 percent of school population is eligible for the Free and Reduced-Price Meals program). Technology, however, is being presented to constituents as the solution to close the equity gap in education and to sufficiently prepare students for college or a career.
“Children do need to appropriately use technology as a learning tool as they move through high school and towards graduation; however, elementary and middle school students can make use of technology through shared devices. The ongoing investment of money and personnel in an unproven one-to-one computer tablet program shifts resources away from the basic necessities of comfort, safety, food, and meaningful human interaction.”
“Truth” does not reside in machines except where people supply the “educative” material for those machines..
Too it is well worth noting that anthropologists have noted that when any species becomes overly specialized they become extinct. Rome became slaves to their slaves as historians have noted. These two ideas coincide now. We have become increasingly slaves to our machines which now increasingly does our thinking for us. Where does that lead?
Please keep in mind when reading this that Baltimore is not located in Baltimore County. Baltimore City divorced itself from the county back in the day. So, Baltimore County surrounds the city of Baltimore itself, but doesn’t include it.
I recommend that those pushing this initiative watch or re-watch the fourth season of “The Wire,” a fictional television series that will nonetheless acquaint them with the silly little formality most of us call “reality.”
Baltimore County is a huge area (horse farms, vineyards, etc.) with a healthy tax base. Not season 4 of “The Wire”, not Baltimore City Schools.
Supt. Dance has taken risks before, like when he got himself involved with SUPES Academy.
http://catalyst-chicago.org/2015/10/superintendents-elsewhere-caught-up-in-supes/
More strange bedfellows. Baltimore County needs to wake up, and quick.
In my opinion, you’re both right. We are not in the city of Baltimore and yet, the Wire featured a different use of the same-named program STAT which some now think lead to the riots in April. David Simon talks about Martin O’Malley’s introduction of these policies in an article written just after the riots. STAT was a way to make it look like crime was being addressed (by focusing on the statistics) but ultimately profiled specific groups and made the relationship between cops and the underserved population worse. That may not have been season 4 but it was the Wire.
especially”official outcome data will not be evaluated by the school system until the third year of the program, at which point many multi-year contracts for technology services will already be in place.”
Good to see if someone can get public records to reveal who is getting the contracts based on what evidence of “performance” since Maryland is really HUGE on performance and best practice and so on.
Unfortunately these decisions are not limited to one state.
The power hungry, greedy psycho frauds behind corporate public education reform don’t care if their gimmicks and expensive false promises lead to increased learning or not. They only care about the profits to be made. That’s it. Anyone that believes this crap will work is an ignorant fool.
The fact is that no matter what gimmicks these frauds throw at children, who are a challenge to teach, who mostly live in poverty or have learning disabilities or English is their 2nd language and they are starting to learn it, nothing will work.
What works best is when dedicated, career teachers are supported to do what they do best: teach human to humans. No machines or high stakes tests will ever teach anything to anyone who doesn’t want to learn for any reason.
Support teachers and let them do their job as professionals and more children will learn but not every child will learn because learning is an individual choice and the best teacher in the world can’t teach a cement wall.
If Dallas Dance is still CEO of BCPS, this doesn’t surprise me. He had a position with Houston ISD schools before he took command there, and they also – surprise – have a one-to-one system that has not run smoothly. Dance’s former commander, Terry Grier, is retiring in March ahead of a potentially ugly financial audit.
Is there any research out there that shows the benefits of edu tech, particularly in secondary science? I have read a lot about the down side of tech and I want to make sure that I am getting a balanced view.
I have been told that my school is “falling behind” in technology so we should be using Google Classroom and other tools to have students submit their work online and for me to put resources online. We are working towards a BYOD program. But all that seems to be tech just for the sake of using tech. My knowledge of learning theory is that classrooms are built around people constructing knowledge and that is primarily done using language…hopefully rich nuanced language and not clicking radio buttons.
Am I missing some huge learning benefit here?
Cyber charters have been among the lowest performing charters nationally. They fail to consider the social, emotional benefits of group learning, and they usually fail to maintain students’ interests. I doubt CBE will be any better. http://articles.philly.com/2015-10-28/news/67825300_1_online-schools-public-charter-schools-reinventing-public-education
I don’t know about science in particular, but a study by the OECD last summer shows that students who use technology every day in classes actually have lower test scores than students who use technology only some of the time. I have given this information to my state legislature, because Utah is discussing having one-to-one devices. http://www.oecd.org/education/new-approach-needed-to-deliver-on-technologys-potential-in-schools.htm
Bet they ignore both the IT engineers and teachers.
This was foreseeable to anyone:
“A series of Baltimore County Public Schools blog posts, press releases, and promotional videos preceded the rollout of the STAT program, which officially began in August 2014 in a small number of test schools; anecdotal evidence of the benefits to students of a one-to-one computer program was emphasized throughout, and numerous “partnerships” were quickly established with educational technology companies. The school superintendent and other key administrative personnel participated in several speaking opportunities and conference appearances, often sponsored by those same technology companies; almost immediately the STAT program received praise, starting with awards from online media organizations, also backed by corporate interests.”
It is extremely irresponsible to put technology in schools in the hands of people who sell technology TO schools.
That won’t end well.
I can’t imagine what the operating theory here is- technology companies are disinterested experts? Is it the “good people” theory again? Ordinary people might have a conflict but these are special, “good” people?
Would they turn school lunches over to General Mills? After all, they’re the experts on processed food!
why is there not a national conversation about conflict of interest in public schools? i don’t understand why things have gone so far awry.
Didn’t the LAUSD iPad debacle already show us that tablets for each student isn’t such a great idea?
It didn’t permeate the consciousness of anyone in Baltimore County Public Schools. This is why we need a national conversation.
cindy, more prosecutions will get more people talking. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/sun-investigates/bs-md-co-supes-academy-20150418-story.html
The “beauty” of corporate “reform” (from a parody standpoint) is that the debacle’s just keep repeating.
The only thing that changes is the names of the Superintendents and tech suppliers.
“What a drag it was without those” (with apologies to Mick Jagger)
“Kids are different today”, I hear ev’ Reformer say
Jenny needs something today to boost her mind
And though she’s not really bad, there’s a little HP pad
She goes running for the shelter of Reformer’s little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her testing day
“Things are different today”, I hear every student say
Writing journals with a pencil’s just a drag
So he takes his books and letters and he throwns them in the shredder
And goes running for the shelter of Reformer’s little helper
And it helps him on his way, gets him through his testing day
Dallas*, please, some more of these
Inside the school, EliteBooks rule
What a drag it was without those
“Kids just aren’t the same today”, I hear every teacher say
They just don’t appreciate when you get fired
They’re so hard to satisfy, you can tranquilize their mind
Send them running for the shelter of Reformer’s little helper
And it helps them on their way, gets them through their testing day
Dallas, please, some more of these
Inside the school, EliteBooks rule
What a drag it was without those
“Test’s just much too hard today”, I hear every student say
The pursuit of education seems a bore
But if they take more of those, they will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of Reformer’s little helper
They won’t help them on their way, through their kindergarten day
Dallas, please, some more of these
Inside the school, EliteBooks rule
What a drag it was without those
*Dallas Dance Superintendent of Baltimore County Schools
Some DamPoet – you rock!!! Love your lyrics…the Stones would be proud.
If only Sup’t Dance had been held accountable in 2013…
SUPES gave a paid consulting position to Baltimore County schools Supt. Dallas Dance in 2013, just months after his school board awarded the company a no-bid $875,000 contract. The district’s ethics commission looked into the arrangement following initial news stories about Byrd-Bennett and SUPES. The panel determined Dance violated district policy by not asking permission from the school board prior to accepting the consulting work, which involved training CPS principals.
i am so sick of those who think online is better than a certified teacher. This is INSANE. It’s about $$$$$.
As a FAVOR for a distressed parent, I worked with a high school student who failed a class and was told to take an online course. It was a NIGHTMARE! The handbook was poorly written, the tasks insane, and the tests were horrid. There was supposed to be testing centers where this high school student could take the midterm and final exams, only NONE EXISTED.
been there, done that. didn’t want to be there, but got put. managed to support time for real teaching by ‘accidentally’ turning off hot spots, etc. finally the pressure is back off since the two schools that devoted the most time to online learning had the biggest drops in scores. (ha, vindication!) kids need to TALK and PROCESS to grow.
What if the Broad Academy and SUPES merged. Wouldn’t that be something?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-cps-fraud-plea-negotiations-met-20160128-story.html
Bankrupt the nation and the. Take over in the name of saving money through “superior” technology.
Question:
What does a typical school day look like and how do the kids like it?
Given that Hewlett Packard is the tech provider, one has to wonder what sort of kickbacks might have been involved to get the contract because HP has a history Of course, as these companies always do when caught with their pants down, HP denied any wrongdoing.
They are very distracting in middle school. Also using “individualized” video game based programs. My children do NOT like watching a video of someone teaching a concept for instruction. Prefer more human contact with their teachers. A lot of time spent on the devices; more than I believe is reasonable. Threatened out west noted report that shows when used more than a 1/2 hour per day, and learning outcomes are worse.
We are so happy that Diane has posted this for us in the Baltimore County Public Schools. Once a phenomenal school district – I believe it is not too late to earn our previous good name back. So much is riding on the next few years – for our children in the schools, our families, our teachers – and last but not least – our taxpayers. BCPS can be saved if we all do our part now.
https://teachingafter60.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/parcc-scores/
I think it’s telling that these initiatives often mention tablets and iPads. Chromebooks would be a better value, but there is more money for a vender to make of of tablets.
Here’s a blog with links to PARCC scores, comparing scores in the schools in the first wave of the personalized learning and 1:1 initiative with scores in the schools who didn’t have it yet. https://teachingafter60.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/parcc-scores/
Statistically I would rather compare these scores with prior year scores… those schools with the devices may have already been performing below the other schools before the computers. What is more relevant is to compare how the scores changed at the pilot schools with how the scores changed at the non-pilot schools. Did the ones with the computers show greater growth? But since it’s only year one of PARCC, this type of analysis is not possible. So instead we must wait and see. Any good initiative needs 3-5 years to yield results.
Why do I keep seeing comments that allegedly accept tests as a way to measure student learning when data shows us that GPA is more important than test scores.
“A recent Bates College study found that high school GPA is the best indicator of success in college — not standardized test scores.
“The three year study looked at 123,000 students at 33 U.S. colleges and universities that are test-optional. Researchers found that there was no substantial difference in college GPA and graduation rates among students who submitted test scores at these schools and those who did not.”
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/02/26/new-study-says-high-school-gpa-matters-more-than-sat-scores/
We should be protesting high stakes standardize tests that profit private sector for profit and so called non-profit corporations instead of supporting them with words that are laughably stupefaction for their existence.
Is this fair? No. Students spend over 4,000 hours in a high school classroom working on their GPA and spend 4 hours taking the SAT.
High stakes tests that are used as a flawed indicator for college readiness are a profit making tool—and that is all they are.
I disagree. with your comment, BCPS parent- any good initiative needs continuous monitoring along the way to assess value of pushing forward. Can you imagine if your cardiologist told you that? Well, you need to spend this large amount of money every year to pay for this medicine and then we will need 3-5 years to see if this medicine is doing you any good? This is research being done in this school system and it is not being evaluated. Our 6 year olds will be 9-11 years old by the time you are suggesting we evaluate the data that is already available to assess? So, what happens if the data reveals that our children are doing significantly worse than the counterparts at other school systems who did not have the 1:1 initiative? Will they be responsible for remediating our children? Have you bought your 6 year old child a $1400 tablet for your home? Probably not- like most people, you would find what you need at a price point that makes sense. The ed tech companies must love working with BCPS- they’ll buy what ever the company says is the “best”. Well, what about all those kids at Landsdowne who are drinking brown water? Is that really the best we can do? If PARCC scores are not available, use something else. There are plenty of ways to gather objective data, not just some qualitative data about how the kids like playing with their very own computer.
It is morally wrong to experiment on little children. 3-5 years is ridiculous to wait. They also are not measuring health outcomes.
I also agree that high stakes testing is not the way to go, in general, but currently the school district is measuring engagement, behavior, and how thoroughly the teachers are implementing personalized learning. There are many people that feel it is harming children based on their own observations.
I also want to clarify – i do think it is okay to experiment with children, but only with an enormous amount of care and precautions. None of that is present in this case. What is morally wrong is to do it the way it is being done.
Thanks, D.F.
I think parents should give their permission in writing before their children are experimented upon. Otherwise, the experiments are unethical. Not with my child, you don’t.
@ BCPS Parent- It’s interesting that when it suits people, they will use the data, that you say you would rather not use. I also do not think this testing is the greatest objective data, but it’s much better than the qualitative data they are using such as behavioral issues, how much kids “seem engaged”, and shiny videos with kids smiling and telling everyone how much they love their computers. See below
“In Maryland, meanwhile, more than 41,000 Baltimore County students in grades 3-8 took the PARCC exams in 2014-15. Fifty-three percent of students took the math exam online, while 29 percent took the English/language arts exam online. The mode of test administration was decided on a school-by-school basis, based on the ratio of computers to students in each building’s largest grade.
….
To identify the cause of such discrepancies, district officials compared how students and schools with similar academic and demographic backgrounds did on each version of the exams.
They found that after controlling for student and school characteristics, students were between 3 percent and 9 percent more likely to score proficient on the paper-and-pencil version of the math exam, depending on their grade levels. Students were 11 percent to 14 percent more likely to score proficient on the paper version of the the ELA exam.”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/02/03/parcc-scores-lower-on-computer.html
Thank you Diane Ravitch for your comment about experiments. That would be a great subject for your blog.
Thank you for posting this timely article. The Baltimore County Public Schools Board of Education is voting to spend $40+ million dollars on projectors for classrooms and continuing the STAT initiative for the elementary schools on 2/2/16. Parents have very little voice in this process and I am grateful both for the letter writer and Daine Ravitch for highlighting the money trail that does not help our kids.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-children-technology-20160201-story.html
Apparently the Board Members of Baltimore County Public Schools are happy with Dr. Dance’s initiatives as his contract was renewed for another 4 years. The Board is appointed so there is no taxpayer input. In the many responses to letter posted on the blog there was little comment regarding how class sizes in BCPS has increased by about 10-20% over the past 3 years. Fewer teachers, more new teachers, higher attrition, classes being taught by long term subs for months if not the whole school year, low morale among teachers, curriculum roll-outs with little training of teachers, just to name a few things.
There is a new blog about the STAT initiative in Baltimore County Public Schools: it is called STAT-us BCPS. It is informative.
https://statusbcps.wordpress.com
You don’t need several years of research to tell if a tool is effective. If it’s not providing some obvious benefit that you’re probably doing it wrong.
I teach math to little kids and in my spare time I code tablet apps to help them. It’s obvious when something I create does or does not help me teach. The key is that if something isn’t right, I just go home and fix it and try again the next day.
I’m very lucky to be able to test and build apps on my own and I want to do the same for other teachers. I’m sure there are tons of teachers out there with ideas for great apps that would help them right away.
Here’s an article for any teachers who want to learn more about what I’m doing.
https://goo.gl/Bqvjnj
From my experience, EdTech can be great stuff, but we can’t have a “Trickle Down” development process. It has to start with teachers.