Hudson Valley parents to state: Don't share students' data with corporations
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| Photo credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr. | Many Hudson Valley parents and educators oppose a New York State Education Department project that they say would give access to student data to private education corporations. (March 27, 2013) |
Hudson Valley parents and educators are digging in to oppose a state Education Department project that they say may lead to "data mining" of private information about kids under the guise of improving education in New York's schools.
Parents and school leaders told Newsday that they don't trust the state Education Department to safeguard student information in a data portal slated to be made available to districts this fall. All districts that have signed on to participate in the federal Race to the Top program -- that's 90 percent of those in the state -- are required to participate in the portal.
Parents are skeptical about the potential involvement of private education corporations, which would be given access to the data for use in developing educational tools. To top it off, many parents disagree with the underlying assumption that data analysis is going to make chldren more successful.
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DATABASES: High school graduation rates | Research local schools
PHOTOS: Valedictorians in the Hudson Valley
DATABASES: High school graduation rates | Research local schools
PHOTOS: Valedictorians in the Hudson Valley
The data warehouse would contain student test scores, attendance and disciplinary records and would indicate whether a student is