Grass Roots Report: Videos and account of hearings on the dangers of inBloom and private data-sharing in Albany and Chicago
NPE Board member, Leonie Haimson, the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, testified recently at hearings related to student data privacy. Here is a post from Leonie’s website, NYC Public School Parents.Video of Wednesday’s excellent NY Assembly hearings in Albany on inBloom and student privacy are online and below, including riveting critiques from many of the Assemblymembers from both parties, who grilled Commissioner King and Associate Commissioner Ken Wagner of the NYS Education Department. In turn, King and Wagner continued to obfuscate and tried as much as possible to avoid answering their direct questions or responding to their concerns.
Chair of the NYS Assembly Education Committee Cathy Nolan was also particularly upset because inBloom refused to show up for the hearings after being asked to testify. InBloom claimed a “prior engagement” – the exact same response the NYC Council received from the company when the Education Committee held their hearings last month.
I was disturbed to learn that the state had already uploaded a large amount of personal student data to the inBloom cloud, only without names attached, apparently to help inBloom
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Opinion: Why so many parents hate Common Core | CNN.com
By Diane Ravitch Editor’s note: Diane Ravitch is research professor of education at New York University and a historian of education. She is the author of more than a dozen books about education, including the recent bestseller “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and The Danger to America’s Public Schools.” (CNN) — ...read moreThe post Opinion: Why so many parents hate Common Core | CNN.com appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
Paul Thomas: Grit and “No Excuses” Not Enough | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Paul Thomas of Furman University has emerged as one of the most eloquent voices on behalf of children in poverty. In this essay, linked by Maureen Downey in the Atlanta Journal-Consitution, Paul explains why “grit” and “no excuses” are not enough to overcome the burdens of poverty. Paul says that the reformers’ narrative is not ...read moreThe post Paul Thomas: Grit and “No Excuses” Not Enough | Diane Ravitch’s blog appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
Vallas’ cure for N. Chicago schools — mass layoffs — riles teachers union | Chicago Sun-Times
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Springfield Bureau Chief November 24, 2013 7:22PM SPRINGFIELD — Since landing work outside Illinois more than a decade ago, former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas hasn’t just focused on leading troubled school systems in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Conn. Last summer, in a little-publicized $311,000 consulting deal with the Illinois State ...read moreThe post Vallas’ cure for N. Chicago schools — mass layoffs — riles teachers union | Chicago Sun-Times appeared first on NPE News Briefs.
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Indiana Governor Pence’s War Against Democracy | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Governor Mike Pence just can’t get over the fact that challenger Glenda Ritz beat State Superintendent Tony Bennett, even though Bennett had a 10-1 spending advantage. Pence may be miffed because Ritz got more votes than he did. But her worst crime is that she does not share the governor’s nihilistic ideology of destroying public ...read moreThe post Indiana Governor Pence’s War Against Democracy
Brace yourself: Pearson has a ‘new global education strategy’ | The Answer Sheet
BY VALERIE STRAUSS November 25 at 10:00 am Pearson, the largest education company in the world, has “a new global education strategy.” What exactly is it? Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham explains in this post. Willingham is a professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like ...read moreThe post Brace yourself: Pear
Common Core Debate Is Really Just Another Chapter of Test-and-Punish | janresseger
Posted on November 25, 2013 by janresseger The debate about the Common Core Standards and the Common Core tests is not really about whether our public school curriculum ought to be more uniform and perhaps more challenging from place to place. That would be a debate worth having. But really instead the Common Core is ...read moreThe post Common Core Debate Is Really Just Another Chapter of Test-a
Is Robo-Grading Driving the Design of Common Core Tests? | Anthony Cody – Living in Dialogue
By Anthony Cody on November 25, 2013 9:44 AM As we read of the 17 states across the country where a strong backlash has grown against Common Core, my own state of California is conspicuous by its absence. California has yet to see a strong reaction against the Common Core, for several reasons. The State ...read moreThe post Is Robo-Grading Driving the Design of Common Core Tests? | Anthony Cody –