Posted on 03/13/2015 3:20:31 PM PDT by OL Hickory
Pearson, the multinational testing and publishing company, is spying on the social media posts of studentsincluding those from New Jerseywhile the children are taking their PARCC, statewide tests, this site has learned exclusively.
(Excerpt) Read more at bobbraunsledger.com ...
Resource limit? How we gonna read it?
March 13, 2015
BREAKING: Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests
BLOGPEARSON Pearson, the multinational testing and publishing company, is spying on the social media posts of studentsincluding those from New Jerseywhile the children are taking their PARCC, statewide tests, this site has learned exclusively. The state education department is cooperating with this spying and has asked at least one school district to discipline students who may have said something inappropriate about the tests.
This website discovered the unauthorized and hidden spying thanks to educators who informed it of the practicea practice happening throughout the state and apparently throughout the country. The spyingor monitoring, to use Pearsons wordwas confirmed at one school districtthe Watchung Hills Regional High School district in Warren by its superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett.
Jewett sent out an e-mailposted here to her colleagues expressing concern about the unauthorized spying on students. She said parents are upset and added that she thought Pearsons behavior would contribute to the growing opt out movement.
In her email, Jewett said the districts testing coordinator received a late night call from the state education department saying that Pearson had initiated a Priority 1 Alert for an item breach within our school.
The unnamed state education department employee contended a student took a picture of a test item and tweeted it. But it turned out the student had postedat 3:18 pm, after testing was overa tweet about one of the items with no picture. Jewett does not say the student revealed a question. Jewett continues:
The student deleted the tweet and we spoke with the parentwho was obviously highly concerned as to her childs tweets being monitored by the DOE (state education department).
The DOE informed us that Pearson is monitoring all social media during the PARCC testing.
Jewett continued: I have to say that I find that a bit disturbingand if our parents were concerned before about a conspiracy with all of the student data, I am sure I will be receiving more letters of refusal once this gets out.
The school superintendent also expressed concern about the fact that the DOE wanted us to also issue discipline to the student.
I contacted Jewett by email. By that time she had discovered three instances in which Pearson notified the state education department of the results of its spying. In her email to me, Jewett was vague about the role of Pearson and the education department. She wrote:
In reference to the issue of PARCC infractions and DOE/Pearson monitoring social media, we have had three incidents over the past week. All situations have been dealt with in accordance with our Watchung Hills Regional High School code of conduct and academic integrity policy. Watchung Hills Regional High School is a relatively small district and a close-knit community; therefore, I am very concerned that whatever details your sources are providing may cause unnecessary labeling and hardship to students who are learning the consequences of their behavior.
Jewett acted professionally, I believe, but I must point out the irony of her lecturing me about protecting the identity of students when she has just dealt with an inexcusable breach of privacy involving minors. I made it clear to her I have no intention of revealing names of studentsbut I would be more than happy to speak with their parents.
The state education department official identified as the person cooperating with Pearson is Veronica Orsi, who is in charge of assessment for grades 9-12 in the department. She refused to answer this websites questions about her involvement.
Neither the state education department nor Pearsons would respond to my emails on the companys spying on students.
New Jersey is paying $108 million to run its PARCC testing program, an enterprise that has engendered opposition throughout New Jerseyand that was before the spying was revealed.
State Education Commissioner David Hespe spent hours testifying before the Legislatures Senate Education Committee Thursday and did not once mention the possibility that the London-based Pearson would be monitoring the social media accounts of students taking the test. Jewetts email, however, indicated the departmentpresumably including Hespewere well aware of the practice.
A few days before, state education department officialsincluding Orsiheld a background briefing for some mediaBob Brauns Ledger was not invitedand none of the mainstream media accounts of the session revealed the Pearson spying program.
Written by Bob Braun Posted in Education, Law and Justice, Politics
Thankfully net neutrality will fix this.
He’s hosted at greengeeks.com, “the leader in clean hosting”. They claim to give you “unlimited bandwidth”.
No, they are not spying. They are reading information provided to the public by the students.
Why are children taking a test using social media in the first place?
Home schooling well stop it.
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