Links between NJ education and Pearson are cozy indeed
Bari Anhalt Erlichson, an assistant New Jersey education commissioner and chief testing officer who supervises PARCC testing throughout the state, has a personal connection of sorts to PARCC’s developer, the British publishing giant Pearson. Anhalt Erlichson is married to Andrew Erlichson, a vice president of a company named MongoDB. MongoDB (the name comes fromhumongous database) is a subcontractor to Pearson, developing its national student database that provides the larger company with access to student records in New Jersey and the nation.
Anhalt Erlichson wrote a memorandum to New Jersey educators March 17 defending the actions of her department and Pearson in monitoring the social media of New Jersey students while they took the PARCC tests. She blamed the uproar caused by the revelation of the cyber-spying on the failure of parents and educators to understand social media.
She did not mention her personal ties to a company that profits from the business relationship to Pearson–and the state education department. Bari Anhalt Erlichson and Andrew Erlichson own a home in Princeton valued at $2.9 million, according to property records.
State education department spokesmen declined to answer inquiries about Erlichson’s connections to MongoDB.
Erlichson is expected to appear Thursday before the Legislature’s Assembly Links between NJ education and Pearson are cozy indeed | Bob Braun's Ledger:
