The Most Secretive Game In Town
When most people think about public schools, the word they focus on is “public.” Things done in public are, by most definitions, visible by everyone. They are exposed for the world to view and judge. Think of Aunt Mable who chastised her husband, who enjoyed his happy hour a bit too much, for making a public spectacle of himself. What Uncle Marvin chose to do in response to the public opinion expressed about his slurring proclamations and zealous though slightly out of control gesticulating was up to Uncle Marvin. When it comes to the teaching materials used in our public schools, traditionally we have come to expect the same access for viewing, with the assumption that the suppliers could choose to respond to any public criticism in whatever way they wanted. In fact, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA (20 U.S.C. § 1232h; 34 CFR Part 98 ) codifies this expectation by protecting a parent’s right to view any and all curriculum material used in the public school. This expectation is, however, being eroded by the privatization of education. Now the secrecy surrounding teaching materials and standardized tests is rising to the level of that in the Bengazi investigation.
Most people who follow education are now familiar with the cloak and dagger secrecy of the Texas school curriculum known as C-SCOPE. This on-line curriculum was not available for parental viewing. Teachers were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement when using the materials. It was eventually exposed by some whistle blowing teachers who took issue with the content of what they were required to teach with C-SCOPE. The creators of the curriculum tried to hide what they were doing by changing the on-line lessons when they were forced to allow parents and public officials to access the lessons. Fortunately some astute teachers had already taken screen shots of the lessons prior to the re-write. C-SCOPE’s liberal, globalist, pro-Islamic leaning was exposed to public scrutiny and rejected. Their attempts at secrecy only served to heighten public skepticism of on-line education in general. At a time when use of on-line technology could have been used to augment the education process and help control costs, the Texas experience may have set that option back almost a decade.
A similar aura of secrecy surrounds the up and coming Common Core aligned tests. Having them be delivered through on-line servers, so soon after the C-SCOPE debacle has not helped SBAC or PARCC. Public skepticism was already entrenched. However, the limited access to the tests by The Most Secretive Game In Town | Missouri Education Watchdog:
