Many of us have wondered about the practice of measuring, rating and ranking every student, every teacher, every school. We know that Big Data is insatiable.
China is perfecting Big Data.
“Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you a single score that measures how “trustworthy” you are.
“In this world, anything from defaulting on a loan to criticizing the ruling party, from running a red light to failing to care for your parents properly, could cause you to lose points. And in this world, your score becomes the ultimate truth of who you are — determining whether you can borrow money, get your children into the best schools or travel abroad; whether you get a room in a fancy hotel, a seat in a top restaurant — or even just get a date.
“This is not the dystopian superstate of Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” in which all-knowing police stop crime before it happens. But it could be China by 2020. It is the scenario contained in China’s ambitious plans to develop a far-reaching social credit system, a plan that the Communist Party hopes will build a culture of “sincerity” and a “harmonious socialist society” where “keeping trust is glorious.”
Big Data has valuable uses for macro-trends in society. Big Data is dangerous when it scoops up personally identifiable data.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The danger of pointing to China is that we might fail to look in the mirror. This isn’t just a “communist” plot happening “over there”. It’s happening right here in our own capitalist backyard.
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Dienne,
That was the point of posting the article. Big Data can be used to control people, here, there, everywhere.
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Thank you Dienne. What are you preparing to deal with it? Is it by criticizing Hillary and inadvertently helping puppet master to PERFECT their control through deplorable Trump?
Please watch “military police or FASCIST organization in disguised” plus a terrorist contract organization under CONTROLLED government which is shown in a movie’s concept “Jack Reacher”. In this movie fascism beats communism like Europe against China, Japan and Russia. Where is USA?
Which country has invaded USA’s banking system through all deplorable, talent-less, and greedy businessmen + politicians?
In VN, gullible patriots fought “SO CALLED” French colony in 50’s and American modernized culture in 60’s in order to get LIP-SERVICED from Communists under sounding named “PATRIOTISM”.
From April 30 1975 to the present OCT 24, 2016 = 40 years +, Vietnamese Communist leaders has destroyed the country’s economy from a glorious and prosperous economy into the current starving and desperate economy.
I am old and sick, BUT NOT IGNORANT about the difference between the utmost importance in HUMANITY versus the danger in the game of fame and fortune.
Your character is easily manipulated by all malicious puppet master.
IMHO, if leaders are deplorable and desperate in materialistic + sexual fulfillment, leaders will submit themselves to PUPPET MASTER at the expense of their country and their family members, circle of friends, and citizens. May
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It astounds me how willfully blind Democratic loyalists are to the failings in their own party. Big Data has ramped up and infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives UNDER A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT. Sorry for shouting. This hasn’t happened under some Republican nutcase, but under a rational, intelligent, the “only adult in the room” Democratic president. Why all the shouting about Trump? Do you think Hillary is going to be any better on Big Data? People’s fear of the Orange One has blinded them to what’s happening under their very noses led by the “sane” and “competent” Democrats.
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Why not try life under a demagogue with orange hair? What do we have to lose?
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That refrain gets old, Diane. You’re better than that.
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Dienne,
I just listened to Trump give a speech in Florida. My blood ran cold as I heard him rehearse all his conspiracy theories about the crooked media, crooked Hillary, the crooked FBI, corruption at every turn, except for him, because he loves the little people. I felt as though I were hearing a full-throated demagogue. It wasn’t funny. It was frightening. He wants his followers to believe that they live in a country where none of its institutions can be trusted. And he said, “I alone can fix it.” “I am your voice.”
We can have a friendly conversation about how terrible the Democratic party has been on education, how spinelessly they have caved to the hedge fund managers and Wall Street.
But yes, Trump is the alternative, and he is a demagogue and a threat to our future. The whole world is watching, and they don’t know whether to laugh at us or to be afraid.
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Dienne, you forgot the most important GOP’s control in both houses of congress and senators
Yes, Conservative Party enjoys contracting out ALL ESSENTIAL PUBLIC GOODS and SERVICES from military like spy agency, to National Education, and you just name all public services.
Democratic President cannot appoint the 9th circuit Supreme Court Judge. Can you acknowledge this?
Do not blame on Democratic President, but all Conservative Congressmen /women and senators who only care for their own welfare. May
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Right. It was the GOP who appointed Arne Duncan who paved the way for Big Data in education. Poor Obama is just such a victim.
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Dienne, you have read more criticism of Duncan and Obama and Race to the Top here than on any other blog.
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Can we leave Donnie out of this one?
It’s a deflection to bring him up regarding an issue that transcends this particular vote.
Would he be worse than Hillary about mass surveillance and data mining?
Perhaps; probably, he would, but it’s irrelevant to the larger issue, which is that data mining and hyper- surveillance are out of control, and have the blessing of both the Overclass, the Deep State and, consequently, both political parties.
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“Trump… conspiracy theories about the crooked media, crooked Hillary, the crooked FBI, corruption at every turn, except for him, because he loves the little people… He wants his followers to believe that they live in a country where none of its institutions can be trusted. And he said, ‘I alone can fix it.’ ‘I am your voice.'”
Thank you for this, Diane. It’s the nutshell. The rise of Trump demonstrates widespread mistrust of US democratic institutions. Pres Hillary needs to infuse every initiative w/ re-establishing trust that govt reflects the will of the people and acts in its interests. Progressives need to organize on the ground to press for such initiatives.
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Trump is an unhinged demagogue.
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Although most of agree about Big Data and the implementation by Dems and Reps….no one has addressed how it would be used by each. tRump and his henchmen would probably use it to zero on people who think differently, and either jail them or kill them….that means most of us. Dems probably would just let the data list be leaked as in Wiki.
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Hillary will not change anything. She and Bill Gates are friends.
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My hope is that Bernie (and those who are running in local offices throughout the country with his approval and support) continues to organize and will be that never-ending-nemesis to “assist” Clinton in steering her policy toward “we the people” and away from “wall street fat cats”.
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Dienne
If Hillary gets elected, I’ll put on my under armor, my Down jacket and prepare to protest in Washington starting in February. If Trump wins I will dust off my passport and apply for asylum somewhere else.
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To Joel Herman,
Your JOKE crack a smile on me. We all know that death is almost the end of our materialistic life of our present incarnation.
I hope that you agree with me that we should not be like other refugees. We have our humanitarian spirit. We have our Texas Ranger’s spirit. ALL that we need is our UNITY.
In this forum, if you consider that we are educated, free spirit and well understanding of the meaning of fascism, then we should UNITE and FIGHT for our belief RIGHT NOW on our own land of freedom in AMERICA.
Have GULLIBLE PEOPLE undermined the surveillance system?
All chaos, tortures to prisoners of war, and terrorized crisis in global economy are caused by THE invisible puppet masters’ POWER in all aspects to ordinary people’s lives.
Sometimes, I must confess that ONLY NATURAL DISASTERS like Tsunamis, Hurricane, drought, TERMINAL diseases can be the true PUNISHERS to the artificial POWER.
How the Russian defeated Napoleon in the history? Yes, people burned down all resources when they fleed away and let the nature = WINTER WEATHER killed the artificial power.
If all service sectors realized that greedy corporate poisons land, water, and air, then service people can vow to GOD = their own conscience to become the punishers through their services.
BAD leaders do not trust people = we can cause them worry and dying in misery. They intentionally threaten us = we threaten them with UNINTENTIONAL bad services.
WE go NOWHERE because bad leaders need slaves to serve them. Back2basic
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Quote from the fictional novel, The Circle, by David Eggers, about a powerful internet company and our society’s obsessions with sharing and social media.
“Already 90% of the world’s searches go through the Circle. Without competitors, this will increase soon to 100%…if you can control the flow of information, you can control everything.”
“How can anyone rise up against the Circle? If they control all of the information and access to it? They want everyone to have a Circle account, and they are on their way to making it illegal not to?”
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Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
It’s not just China. Our government is collecting our data at an alarming clip. They may not give each of us a single “trustworthiness” score, but they certainly use our data to keep an eye on us, investigate us, sometimes officially question us.
It’s chilling.
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No need for fancy data mining. People already bare themselves voluntarily on the social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
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Joe, add Google to that list.
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And of course Apple. Want a phone? Create an account that is connected to every other account (Internet, banking, credit) in your life.
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Yes, Google is like some omniscient virtual being that tracks everything we search for. I use duckduck.go.com which does not track my searches. However, most of the other web sites keep track of everything. All ye who enter the Internet universe, abandon all hope (of privacy).
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Also add increasing efforts to demonize and ultimately eliminate the use of cash, so that there is no anonymity to any financial transaction, and that digital middlemen are required (and have the power to interfere with) your spending.
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And who is collecting or already has collected all this data on every US citizen — autocratic corporations that operate mostly outside of the restrictions put on our elected government by the U.S. Constitution that was designed to protect the people from their own government, but not from profit mongers in the private sector that worship at the alter of avarice where greed is good.
It’s obvious that the oligarchs can’t stand the U.S. Constitution and its restrictions that low up the growth of their wealth and power. Donald Trump has done us a great service in revealing how most if not all of the oligarchs really think.
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This is kind of interesting. It’s the first story I’ve seen about a public school that adopted the Summit charter chain’s “personalized learning platform”.
Summit is big in ed reform. They’re all pushing personalized learning, from the Obama Administration to the Walton Foundation:
“Others said their children were finishing too quickly stating some children had completed the curriculum in eight weeks. Some parents said their children were just skipping to the assessments without reading the material. They only had to get eight out of the ten multiple choice questions correct to pass.
Data collection intrusive?
According to Superintendent Poe, the assessments, as well as KPREP, MAPS, and STAR assessments on each student, will be shared with Summit Learning and SCALE in order to evaluate the programs impact. The written agreement with Summit Public Schools Personalized Learning Services indicates sharing with other third party providers including Facebook and Google. The agreement gives Summit Learning permission to collect data from any devices used to access the program, which means parents accessing the program from home or work devices may be susceptible to data collection too. Some parents are upset with their students’ data, and potential their own data, being shared outside of the district.”
They really should get consent before putting these kids into experimental programs run by Facebook and Google. There’s nothing special about Facebook and Google. They are in business to make money. Period. This idea that they’re somehow high-minded caretakers of children who operate in the public interest is just nonsense. It’s marketing.
http://www.nkytribune.com/2016/10/carrie-cox-some-parents-dont-like-the-new-summit-personalized-learning-platform-want-to-opt-out/
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Big Data can be harmful if misused. We have seen how erroneous and dangerous faulty data can be in defining effective teaching. It can also be misused in employment decisions, limiting options for a variety of people in a variety of life choices. Allowing a computer to determine how worthy and unworthy a person is dangerous as people can change over time, but the data can still haunt them. Data should not define people.
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This is the “reinventing government” guy breathlessly promoting Summit Charters as miracle “schools of the future”
“reinventing government” is a fancy phrase for “privatize everything that isn’t nailed down”
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2016-01-19/californias-summit-public-schools-are-the-schools-of-the-future
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It also means destroying social safety nets and any security frail members of society may have. We do not need to reinvent government. We need a government of, by and for the people. We need to cut corporate welfare and get rid of tax loopholes exploited by the wealthy. We need to keep public money and resources public. We don’t need a smaller government; we need one responsive to the needs of its people.
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Amen
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Typical echo chamber event:
“Bush also stressed the importance of school choice and standardized test-based school accountability. He discussed his efforts to expand choice and improve accountability as governor of Florida.”
Charters and testing. I read the listed goals of RttT once- charters and testing.
I hope Clinton changes the focus, brings someone who isn’t a member of this exclusive club on board. I don’t think she will-she strikes me as cautious and this has been the status quo for 20 years- but boy is a shake up overdue.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/14/jeb-bush-education-school-askwith/
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Don’t hold your breath.
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Here’s the US Department of Education promoting Summit Charter Schools with no dissenting opinions included and no “analysis” at all, other than the provided by the charter chain itself:
“Each morning, students at Summit Public Schools connect to their Personalized Learning Plans by using their devices. Here, students find both their short-term and long-term project views, the materials they need to complete their projects, and just-in-time formative feedback to improve their individual learning, all in one location. Using a color-coded system, each project is linked explicitly with the associated content knowledge standards, and students can see the progress they have made toward those standards as well as areas in which they need more practice.”
Give me a break. This isn’t “science”. The federal government is marketing this chain and selling this chain’s approach to every public school.
It’s obscene to call this “science”.
As far as I’m concerned they’re no longer credible on charter schools or “personalized learning”. They may as well be paid representatives of these companies.
http://tech.ed.gov/netp/assessment/
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Why should the DOE be promoting a commercial product? It is unethical. It sounds like a boring, tedious, antiquated, behaviorist method of learning, only now it’s relevant because Silicon Valley is pushing it.
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agree, sounds like a tedious & unpleasant way to learn. I believe a couple of states have pilot programs? (Maine, &…?). I wonder what kind of student/ parent feedback they’re getting.
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I hope that Donald Trump and Bill Gates will watch a movie “Jack Reacher” in order to envision their future fate like the former and current Colonel in the movie. They hire terrorist to do dirty job for them, BUT it is on them instead!
The simple and forever truth in the universal Law of CAUSE and EFFECT or KARMA WILL ALWAYS BE THERE with all sentient being on Earth whether we are wise or ignorant, rich or poor, strong or weak, the law of Karma is like our own shadow from life onto death.
Whoever truly treasures humanity and is wise enough to acknowledge the universal law of KARMA, will intelligently and relentlessly work for humanitarian causes in order to alleviate the sufferance of all fellow beings = we must be healthy, knowledgeable and impartial judgment in doing good deeds.
Most of all, we should be calm and happy to talk, to advise, to write and to do good deeds within our own sincere experience, knowledge, wisdom of the past regardless the result and the outcome of our good deeds as well as the reaction from the enemy. Back2basic
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Great post, Diane. Thank you.
Those data lovers have no clue about the limitations and power of mathematics. Politicians like to pretend they understand, but don’t. Thus, we have ridiculous laws and policies shaped by greedy dunderheads.
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Big Data is already here. The ability to track movements, buying trends, and interests simply by location happens now. The massive amount of data can be stored on the Cloud using free software like Apache Hadoop or for a relatively low price. Conservatives like to fear Big Gubbermint, but it is their beloved private sector that has few controls, transparency, or oversight. And no guarantee the data stays in the U.S. either.
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We’ve seen nothing yet.
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To FLERP!
You are right because we are trusting and gullible in belief that LAND OF FREEDOM is about full of chit-chat complainers plus free of bloodshed fight; and that all POLITICAL lip-services are funny. Back2basic
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To me, what is more dangerous is using phony methods as predictive social policy based on Big Data. The belief inferences and models should be accepted as judging future human behavior is faith-based science. They turn into oppressive tools snuffing out individuality. Even more chilling is the large number of authoritative mindsets, all too willing to yield rights of everyone to a strongman.
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I have thought all along that this is the real goal of standardized testing, hidden behind the alleged concern for kids and the nation’s “competitiveness.” What could be more useful to the autocrats than a detailed profile on each citizen from cradle to grave, including not only assessments of abilities but also of emotion and of personality? Where do you think would be the first place they will turn to learn about troublemakers at the first sign of dissent? It’s like the Stasi, or the Gestapo, without all the trouble of having to spy to have detailed information on every citizen. If the data is collected, it will be used to advance the interests of those seeking to maintain control.
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We teachers can certainly imagine this world because we live it in our public schools. And those creating these “data” systems that track a teacher’s every movement, don’t teach, don’t step foot in a school each and every day. My school system is using Danielson’s FFT to rank and rate teachers in conjunction with proving student growth. Why? There is hinting about implementing a merit plan although it is not stated as such. The plan is to implement competitive pay scales. We are told not to expect to get the highest ratings (even if we have consistently been rated highly over many years). Meanwhile we are not looked on very favorably if we are not willing to sacrifice husbands, wives, children – in other words family life as well as personal interests in the name of going to some teacher workshop or doing some arcane paperwork of no benefit to students… I think going above and beyond the call to the point you never see your children or spouse will be considered “professionalism” . …I suspect this data mining will all be for the purpose of balancing the shrinking budget set aside for teacher salaries by keeping most away from achieving salaries of “merit”. Meanwhile there are more bureaucrats than god hired to do all this tracking and their salaries are not small fry. Marry this data with credit scores and start adding other factors and voila! Ughhh 😦 Maybe schools will sell teacher data to make money to feed the data monsters. Ughhh
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Ah yes, as administrators have more data to track, they add more administrative people. Do teachers get extra help for all the extra data collection? Hah! As a special ed teacher, I used to pour over their work to look for patterns of misunderstanding beyond those provided by raw scores. Frequently, the most valuable insight came when we went over teacher made tests or quizzes together and could examine responses. Not infrequently, I found individual students knew the material but had misread or misunderstood the question. It was the interaction between student(s) and teacher that more often provided actionable information. Too much number crunching took away from interactive instructional time.
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“I think going above and beyond the call to the point you never see your children or spouse will be considered professionalism.”
You’re right about the direction being taken, & they can try to sell it as professionalism but it is merely what happens in any labor sphere in a declining economy. Upper mgt will live like that for big $; giggers will do it in exchange for tailoring their own work schedules; many teachers/ medical people/ social workers will do it in exchange for being allowed to make a valuable contribution to society.
The last group has neither big $ nor schedule flexibility, & the value they can offer is being narrowed severely by time reqd for data-input to the monitoring machine. We are already seeing the results: big-data is chasing qualified people from public-good-related professions.
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Have you heard of Russian math Reasoning Mind? They collect massive amounts of data and measure delight, confusion, boredom, etc. https://youtu.be/RH3HRDWFYI8
http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/reasoning-mind-math-reason-to-worry/
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So far, none of these comments note the role of billionaire foundations who have funded “data quality campaigns” or the current campaign to create links between all databases into a new national “data infrastructure system” for public education and social services pre-K through elementary and secondary education, on to post-secondary education and into the workforce.
The big block is a federal law attached to the Higher Education Act that prevents the creation of a “student unit record data system”–links among databases that have student-level identifiers, even though individual databases (e.g., student loans, transcript verifications) have that information.
People who are eager to use big data want to change the Higher Education Act to allow for links among data bases relevant to education and data mining on an unprecedented scale. A full-throttle lobbying effort is on to get rid of the prohibition. Legislation is pending, and it has been forwarded by a well-organized campaign lead by deep pockets, especially those who want to forward so-called “personalized learning” and market-based education.
If that one obstacle can be removed, the floodgates are pretty open, There is already model state legislation (not from ALEC) giving token attention to privacy forged by a major legal team, Education Counsel LLC. (Major meaning that firm includes Richard Riley.) The model legislation calls for an appointed privacy czar and small board for oversight, including the use of data by outside vendors and contractors. That section is (in my opinion) like Swiss cheese, an invitation to fraud.
http://educationcounsel.com/?publication=key-elements-for-strengthening-state-laws-and-policies-pertaining-to-student-data-use-privacy-and-security-guidance-for-state-policymakers
The Gates Foundation has set up front organizations to push for big data, going back to 2005 . His latest initiative is called the “The Postsecondary Data Collaborative (PostsecData).
The collaborative (begin quote)
“is working to build consensus and support action to advance an advocacy agenda to improve postsecondary data and systems at the federal and state levels. The collaborative, composed of more than three dozen stakeholder organizations, has developed recommended solutions and provided technical assistance on issues such as improving the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), and the federal College Scorecard, among others.
The group complements and supports the work of the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) and the Workforce Data Quality Campaign (WDQC) ….(drumroll, clash the cymbals)…..
TO DEVELOP STRONG DATA SYSTEMS THAT SPAN FROM PRE-K TO THE WORKFORCE. ” (end quote)
The main protection against a national surveillence system for public education and a big data feast in buried in the Higher Education Act.
That is why data-mongers are trying so hard to get new legislation that would lift current federal restriction against links among all federal and state databases, and data bases developed by schemes for “personalized” learning, adaptive testing, and so on.
For more information or to join the initiative, visit: http://www.ihep.org/postsecdata
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I think it is way more complex than someone mining our data for control. It is a complex network in which we all have to buy in for the system to work, the way Vonnegut describes in his dystopian novel Player Piano. Just as students have to be trained to believe what grades and std tests say about them, society has to be trained to buy, trained to accept social position, and trained to accept sub-standard wages.
Modern mis-interpretation of Adam Smith provide a philosophy which teaches us to accept our own mediocrity, so that some in society can earn their millions. We have to be trained to accept this. Teaching should reject this. Schools are not for the few. They are for all.
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“You’re a daisy if you do” Doc Holiday
“The exhortation to be a thought leader may well be a ruse for encouraging
people to speak up and act as a thought leader. That way those who worked
us could identify the taller daisies and thereby identify which flowers to top.”
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The most important aspect is that PEOPLE who are the TRUE HUMAN BEINGS with their conscientious mind are DIVERGENT because nothing can stop them from being humanitarian.
All sentient human beings lives on materialistic needs and sexual fulfillment are, and will always be SUBMISSIVE SLAVES.
All gullible human beings regardless how intelligent they are, will always succumb to the MASSIVE WEB OF DECEIT which are artificially well crafted, designed, and controlled by puppet masters. Back2basic
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This to me is the key paragraph on Summit Charter Schools, and explains why all of ed reform is lock-step promoting the “blended learning” model:
“From the beginning, Summit outperformed its surrounding districts, on a budget of only $7,000 per child. Over its first decade, 96 percent of its graduates were accepted to four-year colleges.”
$7,000 per child. It’s cheap education for the lower and middle classes. They don’t ram this online garbage into wealthier public schools- it’s pushed in lower income areas.
They want high scores on 7k a year per child and they don’t care how they get there.
When they were pushing “blended learning” in Michigan they were claiming they could get high scores on 5k a year. There’s only one way you cut costs that low in a school- you get rid of staff- people- because people are expensive and “dashboards” are cheap.
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“I hope that you know that this will go on your Permanent Record”
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Quotes from the fictional novel, The Circle, by David Eggers, about a powerful internet company and our society’s obsessions with sharing and social media.
“The crew has been working to coordinate all student measurements-to make sure all homework, reading, attendance and test scores are all kept in one unified database. They’re almost there. We’re inches away from the moment when, by the time a student is ready for college, we have a complete knowledge of everything a student has learned. Every word they read, every word they looked up, every sentence they highlighted, every equation they wrote. Every answer and correction. The guesswork of knowing where all students stand and what they know will be over.”
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