I Swear: On “Grit,” Adult Hypocrisy, and Privilege | the becoming radical

I Swear: On “Grit,” Adult Hypocrisy, and Privilege | the becoming radical:

SWEAR: ON “GRIT,” ADULT HYPOCRISY, AND PRIVILEGE

 I’m gonna cuss on the mic tonight.

“Rockin’ the Suburbs,” Ben Folds

My parents taught me that if you swear, it’s a sign of a poor vocabulary.
If I expect my players to be disciplined, then I have to be, too.
Dean Smith

Few things have been more important to me than discovering George Carlin during my teens years in the 1970s. Soon to follow was Richard Pryor.

Profanity and the art of crafting humor are easily the foundations for my life of words as avid reader and writer.

And yes, I swear.

But in both Carlin and Pryor I learned something far more important than how to swear in ways that gained me credibility among my peers (despite my frail nerdom); I had the curtain pulled back on adult authority—the hypocrisy of the “do as I say, not as I do” adult world.

Carlin and Pryor were my first critical teachers.

I grew up in a rural Southern town and school system where adults demanded children respect authority and tradition while behaving in ways that were inexcusable—racial slurs, profanity, drinking, smoking, you name it.

This was particularly pronounced among the coaches in the public schools.

Years after I graduated, I returned to that school to teach. A sophomore came into my class one day, stunned that the head football coach/athletic director/assistant principal had just given the student demerits for swearing—and had yelled profanities at the student during the issuing of those demerits.

So as I have noted before about Coach K and my fandom for Duke University basketball, I have a great deal of trouble with the berating, profane coach demanding character and discipline from his/her players—often children, teens, and young adults.

And we live in a world still where a coach launches into a profane tirade to reprimand his player for lacking class and a white, privileged male moralizes cluelessly, perched not on his own morality but his privilege (see Elizabeth Stoker I Swear: On “Grit,” Adult Hypocrisy, and Privilege | the becoming radical:

High Stakes Testing Makes Surveillance Necessary - Living in Dialogue

High Stakes Testing Makes Surveillance Necessary - Living in Dialogue:



High Stakes Testing Makes Surveillance Necessary

 By Anthony Cody.

Pearson employees may be off for the weekend but when they get to work tomorrow they will find they have a big mess to deal with. The news broke on Friday that Pearson has been monitoring student social media, and has worked with District officials in several instances to ferret out and reprimand students who they Pearson feels have carried out an “item breach.” Pearson stated that the student had posted a photograph of a test item, but that part was untrue, according to the school official who raised concerns about this with her staff.

According to Bob Braun, his blog suffered a “denial of service” attack after the post was published, making it difficult to access. If that is true, someone with some powerful technical skills is working to defend Pearson’s reputation. But the site is back online now.

Here is Pearson’s official explanation of how it monitors social media.

Pearson was also featured as a “case study” by one of the services they use, a company called TRACX. These folks were working over the weekend, because the page that showed the case has since been taken down. But not before I took a couple of screenshots, which show them monitoring activists like Wesley Fryer and Katie Lapham.

Another shoe dropped on the subject when Mercedes Schneider shared news that the SBAC test, in use in even more states than the Pearson tests, also has a social media monitoring system. Mercedes Schneider shares the full document  here. Here is the SBAC’s suggestion to school district officials:

Sites to Monitor

Twitter (https://twitter.com/.)  If your school has a Twitter account, you can take advantage of following your students by requesting their @username and/or encouraging them to the follow the school Twitter account.

• To search for conversations and posts about the Field Test, consider the High Stakes Testing Makes Surveillance Necessary - Living in Dialogue:

NPE Endorses Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬ Network for Public Education

The Network For Public Education | NPE Endorses Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago:

NPE Endorses Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago

March 15, 2015 Chicago, NPE Endorsements

NPE Board President, Diane Ravitch says, “Chuy Garcia is a real reformer. His reforms will restore democracy in education; will restore true education–not test scores–as the center of school life; and prioritize the needs of children, not data.”

Network for Public Education endorses Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago, and asks you to support him in any way you can – by voting for him, volunteering in the next few weeks or donating to his campaign.

Lewis and Brown Endorse Garcia

Chuy Garcia is a champion for public education. Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis believes Garcia should be the next mayor.

Garcia has also won the confidence of Chicago community organizer, Journey for Justice National Director, and NPE Board Member Jitu Brown. Brown said, “Families throughout the city of Chicago are not just concerned with Rahm Emanuel’s style. His policies, including but not limited to education, have hurt families. Children are in overcrowded classrooms and school climates have been ruined as receiving schools struggle to make the failed policy of closing schools work. Chuy Garcia is a consistent, community minded leader who will listen and build Chicago with the people. He will support sustainable community schools, not failed, corporate education interventions.”

It’s easy to see why Garcia has the support of iconic Chicago leaders like Karen Lewis and Jitu Brown. He clearly understands what the people of Chicago have endured as a result of Emanuel’s failed privatization agenda.

In Garcia’s Own Words:

Last year CPS slashed the budget and closed 50 schools, claiming closures will reduce the $1 billion debt, however they have not provided any proof of savings. And here’s Alice-in-Wonderland part: Mad Hatter Emanuel now wants to open 22 new charters, some in areas where he closed schools because of “underutilization.” These will cost Chicagoans $225 million over the next decade.

Why all the new charters? Because they are the new coin of political patronage. A glaring example is the UNO group, until recently led by Juan Rangel, who was forced out after exposes of cronyism and corruption in its charter network. UNO received more than $100 million in state money and Rangel, who earned $260,000 a year, was a co-chair of Emanuel’s mayoral campaign at the same time that UNO personnel worked against Emanuel’s critics in local political campaigns.

Please, take a few minutes to read Garcia’s entire education platform, but here is a synopsis.

My program involves giving the school system back to the people through an elected school board; reducing to the barest legal minimum the plethora of high-stakes, standardized tests by which we falsely judge schools, students, and teachers; placing a moratorium on further charter schools; expanding public education to include pre-kindergarten and even earlier; and reducing class size, which is one of the largest in the state.

Garcia Needs Your Support

Rahm Emanuel has brought the privatization movement to Chicago, and corporate money is flowing into his race. In the primary Emanuel outspent Chuy Garcia 11 to 1, and it is certain that he will outspend him in the general election as well. The latest poll shows that Emanuel has a double digit lead since he started airing non-stop ads, financed by his Hollywood and hedge fund pals. Despite how friendly he looks and sounds in those ads, Emanuel is no friend to students, teachers and Chicago’s working families.

Garcia on the other hand is a genuine supporter of public education. “If Chicagoans elect him, it will send a signal to the entire nation that the bold and misguided effort to privatize our public schools has failed, and that the people of Chicago intend to reclaim public education to its true purpose: equal opportunity for all the city’s children to learn and succeed,” said Ravitch.

When NPE decided to endorse candidates we promised we would support candidates who support public education. We don’t have the money to compete with the billionaires, but as Diane says, there is power in our numbers!  

We hope our endorsement, and the endorsement of Chicago leaders Karen Lewis and Jitu Brown, will persuade parents, students and teachers to get out and VOTE. This election will be tight and your vote will really make a difference.

If you live in Chicago, please vote for Chuy Garcia, and do everything you can to support his campaign and get out the vote.

The Network For Public Education | NPE Endorses Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago:

Toward Fiscal Sustainability: A New Approach in Prudent Fiscal Management of Chicago

Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

The Network For Public Education | NPE Endorses Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago:

The Brave New World of testing expands | Bob Braun's Ledger

The Brave New World of testing expands | Bob Braun's Ledger:

The Brave New World of testing expands

Another New Jersey school district–Hanover Park Regional in East Hanover–was notified by state officials that “monitoring”–spying?– by the British test publisher Pearson revealed at least one student had used a social media account to post a forbidden message regarding the  PARCC tests.  No surprise, really–it’s happening everywhere, including Maryland where a state official said he gets daily reports from Pearson on what students are saying about testing on their social media accounts.

“PARCC has a very sophisticated system that closely monitors social media for pretty much everything (comments like the one you shared, test item questions that students use cell phones cameras and take),” said Henry Johnson, the state assistant education commissioner in Maryland. The state, like New Jersey, has a contract with Pearson.

Henry R. Johnson, Jr.

“We get those reports daily.”

Let’s run that one by you again:

“PARCC has a very sophisticated system that closely monitors social media for pretty much everything….”

The phrase “pretty much everything” aptly describes the broad reach of how this brave new world of testing and cooperation with government works. Pearson will say–as it told the Washington Post–that it is doing it for “security” reasons.

But security is itself a broad term. Here is what the State of New Jersey and Pearson agreed encompassed the idea of security and its possible breach–it’s codified in the testing manual developed by the state and sent out to all the districts:

“Revealing or discussing passages or test items with anyone, including students The Brave New World of testing expands | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Bob Braun 

The show will feature Bob Braun of Bob Braun's Ledger who published the NJ Spy Gate story on Friday and had his website attacked and disabled.

The show will also honor Lucianna M. Sanson and her excellent work for public education here on The War Report on Public Education

Click on the website below to listen live and join the discussion:Sunday Starts:  2:00 pm PT   Ends: 2:55 pm PT

http://bbsradio.com/thewarreport

A direct listen-in line only
Station 1 - 716-748-0150

To call-in and interact live
Station 1 - 888-627-6008

Talking to Bob Braun about Pearson spying on children.by Busted Pencils

today at 3:00 pm Special BustED Pencils at 6pm EST

Talking to Bob Braun about Pearson spying on children. 03/15 by Busted Pencils | Education Podcasts

Talking to Bob Braun about Pearson spying on children. 03/15 by Busted Pencils | Education Podcasts:



Talking to Bob Braun about Pearson spying on children.

Talking to Bob Braun about Pearson spying on children.

 FOLLOW

by Busted Pencils

today at 3:00 pm Special BustED Pencils at 6pm EST

• Bob Braun
• Social media
• Pearson

BustED Pencils talks to verteran journalist Bob Braun about Pearson and the fact that they use social media to spy on students.

Bob Braun

The show will feature Bob Braun of Bob Braun's Ledger who published the NJ Spy Gate story on Friday and had his website attacked and disabled

Big Education Ape: UPDATE: Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests | Bob Braun's Ledger http://bit.ly/1BCz9Ol

Why Tech Companies Need to Better Protect Student Data:

Why Tech Companies Need to Better Protect Student Data

 A wide array of education technology startups are marketing their digital learning tools to teachers, who are increasingly willing to experiment with adaptive learning products that analyze students’ online activities to personalize their lessons. Writing for The New York Times, Natasha Singer reports that school district technology directors, who are responsible for safeguarding student data, are scrambling to keep track of which companies are collecting their students’ data and how they are using it.

The market for educational software designed for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students reached nearly $8.4 billion, up from $7.5 billion in 2010. Yet each of the 14,000 school districts in the United States is confronting issues of privacy and student data security alone. A teacher can sign up for any app or service, without the knowledge or approval of anyone else at the school district.

Some school districts have already experienced data breaches with software that they purchased from vendors, where, in a few cases, student records have been publicly leaked online. Many legal experts posit that companies’ policy of signing up teachers directly, instead of going through the school district, skirts federal privacy laws.

What protections for student privacy are in place?

A federal law called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act requires that school districts maintain the confidentiality of student records and retain control of those records even if some school functions are outsourced to vendors. Another federal law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, enables schools to allow online providers to collect certain personal details from children, but the Federal Trade Commission has recommended that schools do not delegate that responsibility to individual teachers.

The Department of Education recently issued best practice recommendations for school administrators evaluating educational services, and the Consortium for School Networking, an association for district technology professionals, offers a tool kit with data security questions (PDF) that schools should ask service providers. Most recently, a coalition of educational groups published a set of security principles for the use of student data.

All of these are meant to safeguard against security issues like data breaches, identity theft, and student profiling. But unfortunately, student data has fallen prey to all of these thanks to companies who are often more focused on gaining market share than taking steps to truly handle data securely and ethically. Some sites are unencrypted, store passwords in plain text, and in other ways offer inadequate protection against hackers who could potentially seek to gain access to student data.Why Tech Companies Need to Better Protect Student Data:

Big Brother [The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium SBAC] is spying on our children! - Wait What?

Big Brother [The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium SBAC] is spying on our children! - Wait What?:



Big Brother [The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium SBAC] is spying on our children!

WARNING!

Public school students in grades 3-8 will begin taking the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Tests this week.  Children in PARCC States, the alternative Common Core Testing Program begin taking their tests last week.

The Common Core SBAC Testing period runs March 17 – June 15, 2015

The following is just one of the many reasons parents should opt their children out of the destructive Common Core SBAC Tests.

Read the following statement that was provided to all states administering the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Tests;

Please note that the social media Web sites are being monitored by Smarter Balanced Communications staff members.

In fact, the SBAC consortium has enlisted the help of state governments, school districts, schools and test administrators to participate in their spying operation.

The SBAC Spying Memo is entitled, “GUIDANCE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING DURING THE FIELD TEST,” and it states:

The Consortium is closely monitoring social media networks for security breaches and escalating to states when appropriate.

Test Administration Procedures

To get ahead of the problem and reduce the number of security breaches on social media, we encourage you to refer to the Smarter Balanced Test Administration Manual (Appendix B) for detailed information on the impact and definition of incidences as well as the timeline for reporting these activities.

Sites to Monitor

Twitter (https://twitter.com/.)  If your school has a Twitter account, you can take advantage of following your students by requesting their @username and/or encouraging them to the follow the school Twitter account.

• To search for conversations and posts about the Field Test, consider the following search queries: #sbac or #smarterbalanced; #[insert name of Big Brother [The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium SBAC] is spying on our children! - Wait What?:

Join Host Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. on the War Report radio show on Sunday as he exposes Pearson as the Orwellian Big Brother in American public education ---- be afraid, be very afraid!

The War Report on Public Education with Dr James Avington Miller Jr

http://bbsradio.com/thewarreport

The show will feature Bob Braun of Bob Braun's Ledger who published the NJ Spy Gate story on Friday and had his website attacked and disabled.

The show will also honor Lucianna M. Sanson and her excellent work for public education here on The War Report on Public Education

Click on the website below to listen live and join the discussion:

http://bbsradio.com/thewarreport

A direct listen-in line only
Station 1 - 716-748-0150

To call-in and interact live
Station 1 - 888-627-6008