Why You Need To Opt Out Your Children From Standardized Testing NOW: @Pearson Is Spying On Your Kids

Saturday , 14, March 2015 5 Comments

In the Hell on Earth that has come to be corporate education reform in the United States, the reality of Common Core came to a head in New Jersey yesterday when it was revealed by the Superintendent of The Wachtung Hills Regional High School District that Pearson Education had triggered an alert that there was a breach on social media when a student tweeted about a test question. Pearson monitors all student social media accounts during the testing period searching for any discussion about the tests students are forced to take.

Public school teachers and concerned parents have been spreading the word that standardized testing under the new Common Core curriculum standards ever since the new standards were being adopted by state boards of education all over the country. Corporate education reform puts too much power into the hands of large multinational corporations (Pearson headquarters is in the UK) and out of the jurisdiction of local school districts and the parents of children taking these tests.

Pearson’s website describes their monitoring of student social media during the testing period.

Sharing ideas with others online can be really beneficial when you’re studying or revising. However, there are limits to the amount of information you can share, and you need to be careful not to break the rules. If you’re in doubt about what you can and can’t discuss, it’s always best to check with your teacher.

Sharing too much information with others is an example of ‘malpractice’.

We have an obligation to investigate any case where there is the suggestion that you’ve acted improperly.

We understand that sometimes you are going to talk about us and our assessments with your friends. During stressful periods, some comments may not be very flattering. However, we’d like to ask you to act responsibly when discussing us or your exams and coursework online.

The software Pearson uses to track student social media is produced by Tracx. The link to the case study currently redirects to a 404 page. The image displayed shows how their software shows tweets discussing Pearson.

Currently, Michigan students are not participating in the PARCC test, but taking the M STEP assessment this year only. In December of 2013, The Michigan Board of Education selected the Smarter Balanced assessment, another test that is aligned with Common Core. The issue the state is having comes from the state legislature passing bills to make it illegal to use Common Core in schools in the state. Pearson curriculum materials are still being used in Michigan schools however, and the new GED test Michigan uses since January of 2014 is also a Pearson product. The gradebook program many schools in Michigan use, PowerSchool, is again, a Pearson education product.

Pearson spying on students’ social media activity is more than “a bit disturbing.” This smacks of 1984 levels of privacy violation, especially on the nation’s school children. Welcome to the world of corporate education reform, endorsed enthusiastically by Rick Snyder, GLEP, Dick and Betsy DeVos and everyone else you can think of in the US working to destroy public education and turn it into a privatized corporate behemoth. If you haven’t done it yet, you need to opt your children out of the standardized test.

5 thoughts on “ : Why You Need To Opt Out Your Children From Standardized Testing NOW: @Pearson Is Spying On Your Kids”
  • […] that these corporations administering and scoring M-STEP collect data on your children, and may be monitoring student social media even after school during testing time, as school districts and parents in New […]

  • John says:

    I understand and agree with the argument that standardized tests are not a great solution for education. However, I don’t fully understand why Pearson is under so much scrutiny for this situation. Yes, it’s not ideal that a corporation has so much stake in public education, but given the fact that they ARE involved, it makes sense that they have to protect their product. I don’t see how running searches on publicly available information, even on social media, is spying. Now, if Pearson started hacking email accounts or breaking through privacy settings, that would be a problem, but that’s not what happened here.

    I don’t know exactly what was in the NJ student’s tweet, but if it was cheating, it seems strange that this student seems to be let totally off the hook of public opinion.

    • Up North Progressive says:

      It’s a product the public school system would be more than happy to not buy, but the corporate education reformers are pushing on state governments through campaign donations and lobbyists. Selling products to public schools should not be a priority to any state government.

      The student had already taken the test, and it was after school hours when they sent the tweet. That is the alarming part about Pearson monitoring students online, they’re doing it even when the kids aren’t in school.

      Our children’s private lives are being monitored by corporations because the state bought Pearson’s product. That’s why they are under so much scrutiny.

  • Ben Foley says:

    Tracx offers a unified, enterprise-scale, social media management platform. We help brands and organizations from around the world listen and learn about issues related to their products and services so that they can provide a better customer experience and reach new audiences. To learn more about Tracx visit http://www.tracx.com #customerexperience #betterservice #bettersupport #betterproducts​ #engagingnewaudiences

    • jim caton says:

      “Provide a better customer experience…” Disingenuous there, Ben. “Better customer experience” is Corporate-speak for “so we can make even more money.” Read the article. This is not an issue of “customer experience,” it’s an issue of monitoring school children. Your product is technically legal because it deals in information that has been made ‘public.’ But you know very well what the potential uses of such a product are, as this article makes chillingly clear.

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