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Saturday, March 14, 2015

Pearson Is Big Brother

You've already heard the story by now-- Pearson has been found monitoring students on social media in New Jersey, catching them tweeting about the PARCC test, and contacting the state Department of Education so that the DOE can contact the local school district to get the students in trouble.

You can read the story here at the blog of NJ journalist Bob Braun. Well, unless the site is down again. Since posting the story, Braun's site has gone down twice that I know of. Initially it looked like Braun had simply broken the internet, as readers flocked to the report. Late last night Braun took to facebook to report that the site was under attack and that he had taken it down to stop the attack. As I write this (6:17 AM Saturday) the site and the story are up, though loading slowly.

The story was broken by Superintendent Elizabeth Jewett of Watchung Hills Regional High School district in an email to her colleagues.  But in contacting Jewett he has learned that she confirmed three instances in which Pearson contacted the NJDOE to turn over miscreant students for the state to track down and punish. [Update: Jewett here authenticates the email that Braun ran.]

Meanwhile, many alert eyes turned up this: Pearson's Tracx, a program that may or may not allow the kind of monitoring we're talking about here.

Several thoughts occur. First, under exactly whose policy are these students to be punished. Does the PARCC involve them taking the same kind of high security secrecy pledge that teachers are required to take, and would such a pledge signed by a minor, anyway?

How does this fit with the ample case law already establishing that, for instance, students can go on line and create websites or fake facebook accounts mocking school administrators? They can mock their schools, but they have to leave important corporations alone?

I'm also wondering, again, how any test that requires this much tight security could not suck. Seriously.

How much of the massive chunk of money paid by NJ went to the line item "keep an eye on students on line?"

Granted, the use of the word "spying" is a bit much-- social media are not exactly secret places where the expectation of privacy is reasonable or enforceable, and spying on someone there is a little like spying on someone in a Wal-mart. But it's still creepy, and it's still one more clear indicator that Pearson's number one concern is Pearson's business interests, not students or schools or anything else. And while this is not exactly spying, the fact that Pearson never said a public word about their special test police cyber-squad, not even to spin it in some useful way, shows just how far above student, school, and state government they envision themselves to be.

Pearson really is Big Brother-- and not just to students, but to their parents, their schools, and their state government. It's time to put some serious pressure on politicians. If they're even able to stand up to Pearson at this point, now is the time for them to show us.

10 comments:

  1. I want to know why Pearson's IP is even a thing. For 100 million dollars over 4 years in NJ ALONE and for the gobs of data this exam is producing for them, they should have to turn the whole kit and kaboodle over to the DOEs that commissioned the exam. Protocols for test security while it is deployed is one thing but we all know Pearson obsessively holds most of the test for itself. These tests fulfill federal mandates for annual testing -- how can we have a properly informed debate if a corporation can make gobs of money on a contract AND not have to turn over the product for full scrutiny of the public?

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    1. Agreed. It's a bizarre business arrangement. I get why Pearson and other test manufacturers would like it, but why would anyone agree to be a customer under such conditions.

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  2. Pearson does hold onto the tests and reuses the questions, reselling them to different states. Maximization of profit. Bottom line with corporations. Hence the pineapple and hare debacle. Tested in states like FL and some others I can't recall, feedback was that the question was horrible - with much chatter about that which I'm sure Pearson heard; but the test was used yet again in NY. Students were dressing up as pineapples to protest, that's how bad it was. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it isn't still on someone's test out there...they take the money and run, writing lousy questions that they do not care to take feedback on. That's the reason for the clampdown. They don't want anyone advertising how lousy the questions are.

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  3. And cheers to Indiana for switching to Pearson just last week from CTB/McGraw-Hill (not that CTB is necessarily better). We're going to increase the amount of money we spend on testing and increase Pearson's profits.

    Thanks to the policy makers for being good stewards of the taxpayer's treasury!

    /sarcasm

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  4. When I showed my daughter this story, she told me of a similar incident that happened in NYS. Apparently, a friend of hers posted an image of the cover of a state test exam she had taken from Google, and posted it with the comment "I hate state tests". She and her parents were called in for a meeting. Can't help but wonder if Pearson spying was involved in this case, too!

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  5. In keeping with my comment on the previous post, every student should immediately take to Twitter, Facebook and every other social media outlet and start talking about Pearson, the tests, PARCC, any words that will get noticed by Pearson. And they should intentionally share as much detail as they can about the questions. Let's see Pearson try to keep up with that.

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  6. Since no one can see the test, how does a school system best prepare its students for whatever is coming at them? By buying the test company's curriculum, that's how! Pearson is protecting more than its test division here, it's creating monopoly markets where any state that does the PARCC forces its districts to buy Pearson textbooks and curriculum.

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  7. Tracx offers a unified, enterprise-scale, social media management platform. We help brands and organizations from around the world listen and learn about issues related to their products and services so that they can provide a better customer experience and reach new audiences. To learn more about Tracx visit http://www.tracx.com #customerexperience #betterservice #bettersupport #betterproducts​ #engagingnewaudiences

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    1. Learn more about Young Ben here...

      http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-social-media-stalking-meet-tracx.html

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  8. Tracx offers a unified, enterprise-scale, social media management platform. We help brands and organizations from around the world listen and learn about issues related to their products and services so that they can provide a better customer experience and reach new audiences. To learn more about Tracx visit http://www.tracx.com #customerexperience #betterservice #bettersupport #betterproducts​ #engagingnewaudiences

    ReplyDelete