Monday, March 16, 2015

This is straight up CREEPY: SUPERINTENDENT CONFIRMS COMMON CORE’S PUBLISHING GIANT PEARSON SPYING ON KIDS’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS


◼ He's right. WHY IS NO ONE COVERING THIS STORY??? This is a Fourth Amendment violation of the highest degree. - Daily KOS

◼ The superintendent of the Watchung Hills Regional High School District in New Jersey has confirmed that she sent an email to fellow superintendents Tuesday about her concern that education publishing giant Pearson is “monitoring” children’s social media accounts for possible leaks about the Common Core-aligned PARCC tests. - Breitbart

On Friday, Bob Braun, a former leading columnist for The Star Ledger in New Jersey, posted on his ◼ blog and ◼ Facebook page an email superintendent Elizabeth Jewett sent to colleagues regarding Pearson’s monitoring of social media posts by students in her district. The email reads:
Good morning all,

Last night at 10PM, my testing coordinator received a call from the NJDOE that Pearson had initiated a Priority 1 Alert for an item breach within our school. The information the NJDOE initially called with was that there was a security breach DURING the test session, and they suggested the student took a picture of a test item and tweeted it. After further investigation on our part, it turned out that the student had posted a tweet (NO PICTURE) at 3:18PM (after school) that referenced a PARCC test question. The student deleted the tweet and we spoke with the parent – who was obviously highly concerned as to her child’s tweets being monitored by the DOE. The DOE informed us that Pearson is monitoring all social media during PARCC testing. I have to say that I find that a bit disturbing. – and 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 (not to mention the fact that the DOE wanted us to also issue discipline to the student). I thought this was worth sharing with the group.

-Liz
According to Braun, he contacted Jewett by email and found she had discovered “three instances in which Pearson notified the state education department of the results of its spying.”

...After posting his article about Pearson’s spying on students’ social media accounts, Braun tweeted the following, indicating his blog was shut down for “denial of service:”


U.K.-based Pearson, the world’s largest education company, administers the test for the federally funded interstate consortium known as ◼ Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Testing is scheduled in March and May amid ◼ a growing movement of parents opting their children out of the tests.

According to Braun, New Jersey is paying $108 million for PARCC to run its testing program.... KEEP READING

◼ Bob Braun's Facebook page

Pearson, the multinational testing and publishing company, is spying on the social media posts of students--including those from New Jersey--while 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 practice--a practice happening throughout the state and apparently throughout the country.

The spying--or "monitoring," to use Pearson's word--was confirmed at one school district--the Watchung Hills Regional High School district in Warren by its superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett. Jewett sent out an e-mail--posted here-- to her colleagues expressing concern about the unauthorized spying on students.

She said parents are upset and added that she thought Pearson's behavior would contribute to the growing "opt out" movement. So far, thousands of parents have kept their children away from the tests--and one of the reasons is the fear that Pearson might abuse its access to student data, something it has denied it would do....

Testing is scheduled for this month and May. Passing or failing the test has no consequence for the students who take it. PARCC does not serve as a graduation test. It can, however, be used in the evaluation of teachers.







#PeepingPearson
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