Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers - CNET

Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers - CNET

Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers

It's a back-to-school sale on your data.

With the coronavirus pandemic pushing schools online out of public health concerns, parents and teachers are turning to digital alternatives like apps to bridge the virtual gap. While kids can learn via these apps, hundreds of advertisers are learning about them, too. 

Researchers from the International Digital Accountability Council looked at 496 education apps across 22 countries, finding privacy issues with many of these services. Several apps were providing location data to third-party advertisers, and also collected device identifiers that can't be reset unless you buy a new phone. 

While the majority of apps examined in the report met privacy standards, the scale of data collection discovered raised alarms about the nature of education apps. 

Researchers found that 79 out of 123 apps manually tested were sharing user data with third parties. That data going to advertisers could include your name, email address, location data and device ID. The study also found that more than 140 third-party companies were getting data from ed tech apps, the majority of which went to Facebook, followed by Google. 

Security researchers often find privacy issues with apps, many of which harvest data from devices even when you don't give consent. 

Even if you do give permission, the data is often shared with multiple third parties that use the data in their own ways. You may allow your weather app to get your location for accurate forecasts, but that app's data partners can use it for advertising or law enforcement purposes. 

App creators often also use software development kits, or SDKs, as shortcuts rather than making their software from scratch, which can also lead to data-stealing schemes. 

Security researchers will analyze network traffic and examine code on apps to figure out where the data is going, but the average person shouldn't be expected to learn this skill to protect their privacy. 

These privacy concerns are common across apps, but it's a bigger issue among education apps since the majority of people using them are children. Education apps CONTINUE READING: Education apps are sending your location data and personal info to advertisers - CNET

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools

On Wednesday, Joe Biden will seek to put a spotlight on President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, particularly when it comes to safely reopening the country’s schools.

Joseph R. Biden Jr., pressing his argument that President Trump is failing the country with his handling of the coronavirus, plans on Wednesday to make the case that Mr. Trump is hurting the nation’s parents, teachers and schoolchildren with his push for schools to reopen.

Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, a community college professor, are scheduled to receive a briefing in Wilmington, Del., from a group of experts, including Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who served as secretary of health and human services for President Barack Obama and is now the president of American University, and Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of the California State Board of Education.

Mr. Biden will then give a speech on what his campaign described as Mr. Trump’s failures on the pandemic as well as Mr. Biden’s plan to reopen schools safely.

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser for the Biden campaign, said Mr. Trump was “barreling forward trying to reopen schools because he thinks it will help his own re-election.”

“We believe this is a key contrast for voters,” Ms. Sanders said. “President Trump, who continues to ignore the science and has no plan to get the virus under control, and Joe Biden, who is working with the experts and putting together an effective plan to beat the virus and reopen schools safely.”

Mr. Trump has demanded that schools reopen this fall and threatened to cut federal funding for school districts that defied his wishes. But his effort to pressure schools did not have the effect he desired, and many districts decided to begin the school year with remote instruction.

The lone exception among the country’s largest school districts is New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio reached a deal with unions on Tuesday to begin remote and in-person classes on Sept. 21, 10 days later than had been planned.

In July, Mr. Biden released his own plan for safely reopening schools, which emphasized deference to local decision-making on whether and how schools could reopen in a safe manner. His plan also called for Congress to pass an emergency funding package to help enable schools to adapt for reopening. CONTINUE READING: Biden Plans a Speech Faulting Trump Over Reopening Schools - The New York Times

Teacher Tom: Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

Teacher Tom: Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

The only rule we ever had surrounding our swing set is that the adults didn't push the kids. Other than that, we took things on an ad hoc basis, allowing the children to experiment and explore as they saw fit, negotiating and re-negotiating as new circumstances and new children arrived. 

Many of our four- and five-year-olds, partly because adults were not pushing them, had figured out how to "pump" themselves, a rite of passage skill like whistling, snapping, or winking. This meant that the kids were starting to experience some of their classmates swinging higher and faster than they did at the beginning of the school year. There may have been a time when the adults felt compelled to warn the kids about the danger of swings, but it had been months since I'd heard one. That's because the children, of their own accord, perceiving the potential for injury should one not remain alert around a swing in motion, had taken on that role for themselves, listening to their inner voices of experience CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Listening to Their Inner Voice of Experience

Science Writer: Should I Send My Children to School? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Science Writer: Should I Send My Children to School? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Science Writer: Should I Send My Children to School?

Apoorva Mandavilli is an award-winning science reporter for the New York Times. She is a mother of two children. She lives in Brooklyn. In this article, she thinks through the pros and cons of sending her children back to school. To read the links, open the story. Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio and UFT leader Michael Mulgrew announced that the city’s public schools would open for blended learning on September 21. Orientation will begin September 16. Teachers will report to their buildings on September 8.

All summer, as information about how the coronavirus affects children has trickled in, I’ve been updating a balance sheet in my head. Every study I read, every expert I talked to, was filling in columns on this sheet: reasons for and against sending my children back to school come September.

Into the con column went a study from Chicago that found children carry large amounts of virus in their noses and throats, maybe even more than adults do. Also in the con column: two South Korean studies, flawed as they were, which suggested children can spread the virus to others — and made me wonder whether my sixth-grader, at least, should stay home.

Reports from Europe hinting that it was possible to reopen schools safely dribbled onto the pro side of my CONTINUE READING: Science Writer: Should I Send My Children to School? | Diane Ravitch's blog

With A Brooklyn Accent: A Message to Trump Supporters- And To All of Us

With A Brooklyn Accent: A Message to Trump Supporters- And To All of Us

A Message to Trump Supporters- And To All of Us

To all the people who will be voting for Trump in spite of, and perhaps because of, his cruelty, his lies, his incompetence and his fomenting of violence and racial divisions. You have your own reasons for doing this, your own moral calculus through which you can explain your actions. What you are doing not only saddens me, it enrages me. I may not say anything or do anything about my feelings. People have the right to vote for who they want to. But I will not soon forget this injury, to me, my students, my family, and my country, To me, voting for Donald Trump is a rejection of everything I was taught to aspire to when I grew up in a more innocent age. It is a rejection of everything I was taught that America represented. Given what we know about him, what we learn about him every day, the Donald Trump Presidency marks the CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: A Message to Trump Supporters- And To All of Us

NYC Educator: The Big Sell Out -

 NYC Educator: The Big Sell Out

The Big Sell Out

For the last day or so I've been inundated with messages on Twitter that this agreement is a sell out, that we shouldn't have done it, and all sorts of other things. I understand the feeling. I also understand what our asks were, and what we got. I'm not entirely sure all the critics of what we did have that clear.

For the record, I came into this debate wanting only online instruction. I wrote an op-ed in the Daily News back in June saying the hybrid plan made no sense.  I've learned more about it since. For example, we will not be teaching from classrooms and zooming at the same time. Still, I stand by my assessment of the hybrid plan. If anything, it's even worse now that we have this blended learning remote nonsense. This system is poorly thought out, and it will collapse under the weight of its lack of vision.

This said, when UFT made demands, the demands were not, in fact, for all online instruction. I was disappointed. It wasn't what I wanted. The city's hybrid is crap, and students would be better served online. In fact, the conditions under which we're expected to teach are bizarre, unnatural, and likely to depress students more than inspire them. It's particularly egregious since the geniuses at Tweed are demanding that those without accommodations teaching remotely do so from school buildings, many or most of which lack the bandwidth to even support it.

This notwithstanding, I was ready to strike for our demands. I spent hours, days talking to members, writing about plans, meeting with all sorts of people, and worrying about how the hell we were going to carry this off. I wrote an op-ed or two. I spoke with journalists and even appeared on TV a few times. It wasn't what I would've asked for, but I stood behind it. I was ready to walk, and do everything in my power to organize 300 members in my CONTINUE READING:  NYC Educator: The Big Sell Out

NYC Public School Parents: Update: a deal to delay the reopening of NYC schools and a new plan to provide regular Covid testing to students and staff

NYC Public School Parents: Update: a deal to delay the reopening of NYC schools and a new plan to provide regular Covid testing to students and staff

Update: a deal to delay the reopening of NYC schools and a new plan to provide regular Covid testing to students and staff

Today, the Mayor, the Chancellor and the unions – the UFT, CSA and DC37—announced a deal that would move back the first day of school to Wednesday, September 16. All students will begin remote instruction on that day. In-person learning in schools will begin the week of Monday Sept. 21 for blended learning students who have opted in. Teachers will report to buildings on September 8 as originally scheduled and will have six days to receive training, coordinate, collaborate and prepare. (Here's the link to the video if you want to watch the press conference - it starts about 25 minutes in.)

Among the health and safety measures announced today is that between 10-20% of all students and staff will be tested every month at every school by mobile testing units– a huge undertaking. Along with the promise of centrally-provided PPE, mandatory mask wearing, social distancing and improved classroom ventilation, the testing protocol led UFT President Michael Mulgrew to describe the plan “as the most aggressive policies and greatest safeguards of any school system in the USA.” The state and city positivity rate last week has been hovering around one percent for weeks, among the lowest in the nation. Last week, it was an extremely low 0.6% -0.7%. 

Before today’s announcement, uncertainty and chaos reigned supreme. The UFT was threatening a strike, and the CSA, the school administrator/principal union, was strongly pushing for a delay to ensure more time to prepare. Many principals spoke out publicly about the need for this delay, along with several CECs, teacher and parent groups. 

Last week the DOE released two new guidance documents, one entitled Blended Learning and Fully Remote Teaching and Learning and another called Preparing for the 2020-2021 School Year: FAQs for Blended and Remote Learning. These documents made it clear that schools would have to staff three different positions for each grade and/or CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Update: a deal to delay the reopening of NYC schools and a new plan to provide regular Covid testing to students and staff

Initial ELPAC Test Moves Online - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

 Initial ELPAC Test Moves Online - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Major Step to Assess English Language Proficiency During Distance Learning

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced this week that the assessment used to determine a student’s English proficiency has successfully transitioned online, giving educators a powerful tool to reach and support English learners while school campuses are closed.

The Initial English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) has moved from a paper-pencil test to an online computer-based test and, as a result, produced real-time results. The online test became available to school districts and charter schools on August 20.

The Initial ELPAC serves as the state’s English language proficiency assessment to identify students as English learners. The test is administered to all students whose primary or home language is not English.

“Not only does computer-based testing provide timely results, it’s another valuable tool for educators in this new era of distance learning,” Thurmond said. “Our English learners are among those most at risk of falling behind, and we need the ability to quickly assess our students in order for our educators to provide the best support possible.”

 Students who complete the new computer-based Initial ELPAC will be scored on the same day. For the first time, schools will immediately receive electronic Initial ELPAC Student Score Reports through the California Assessment System in the top four non-English languages for California, which include Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin or Cantonese (Traditional Chinese), and Filipino.

The state’s testing contractor, ETS, will also provide the California Department of Education (CDE) a student’s English Learner Acquisition Status (ELAS) which will be made available quickly through the California Longitudinal Pupil Assessment Data System (CALPADS). This feature allows the school administrator immediate information to provide services to a student determined to be an English learner.

The new online Initial ELPAC includes the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, all delivered on a computer for grades 3-12. Writing for grades K-2 will remain on paper. The online test is available the entire year.

On the day of its launch, six local educational agencies (LEAs) successfully participated in the online Initial ELPAC. Currently, LEAs administer the test either in-person or through co-located test administrations following the state’s social distancing guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDE is currently working with ETS on solutions for additional remote administration options to ensure student, teacher and parent safety while allowing students to continue to show progress.

More information on the Initial ELPAC can be found on the CDE Initial ELPAC web page.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

 Initial ELPAC Test Moves Online - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Continues Transformation Into Arne Duncan

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Continues Transformation Into Arne Duncan

DeVos Continues Transformation Into Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan said many not-so-swift things, often revealing his true attitudes about the dismantling and privatization of public education. But one of his truly revealing moments came in 2010 when he famously argued that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans." For the many Black teachers who lost their jobs to Teach for America tourists, and the families who have had to navigate a fully privatized but never organized system of charters and private schools, that may sound a bit wrong.

Betsy DeVos came into the office billing herself as a sort of anti-Duncan. The feds would not impose on state control of schools. The department would not be the national school board. Right off the bat in her confirmation hearings, she made it quite clear that she could not imagine a case of discrimination against students that would move her to take any sort of action whatever.

But since the pandemic hit, she has become really comfortable with using the levers of the department to push her own policies for vouchers and defunding public education. Using department rules to rewrite laws passed by Congress and CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Continues Transformation Into Arne Duncan

Grassroots Education Network- August 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- August 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- August 2020 Newsletter

The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of 150 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. 

If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Education Network please contact Marla Kilfoyle, NPE Grassroots Education Network Liaison at marlakilfoyle@networkforpubliceducation.org

Notes from Marla

As schools reopen across the nation you will see that organizations in the NPE Grassroots Education Network are providing valuable information, webinars, and virtual Town Halls for their community.  Again, the purpose of this newsletter has always been about harvesting great ideas from others, or connecting with others who are able to mobilize their communities for the greater good.  I hope as you read the August newsletter you will get inspiring ideas on school re openings (whatever that model looks like) and ways to support families.  The network lost an amazing organizer and true education warrior this month. NJ organizer, PULSE NJ (Newark) Co-founder, and member of the Journey for Justice family Johnnie Lattner passed away this month. We will never forget his service to the New Jersey community and the example he set in his fight for justice.   Please read the powerful tribute to his life from Jitu Brown, National Director of Journey for Justice Alliance. 

National Organizing

The Network for Public Education released Broken Promises: An Analysis of Charter CONTINUE READING: Grassroots Education Network- August 2020 Newsletter - Network For Public Education