Washington Post reports that Pearson, the company administering the PARCC test and the new MCPS student information system, has spent (together with three other testing companies) millions of dollars lobbying for pro-testing policies and against student privacy protections.
The full report is available here:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/b/bc/Pearson_ETS_Houghton_Mifflin_and_McGraw-Hill_Lobby_Big_and_Profit_Bigger.pdf
Come Out Tonight!
ReplyDeleteTo Learn MORE.
Want to know about the sensitive student information collected and handled by Pearson and other operators?
H ave concerns about the MCPS notebook rollout?
We will discuss these pressing questions and more….
With computers distributed to our students (or soon to be), it is time for parents to come together to learn about this the legal, ethical and privacy issues posed by the technology, its pros and cons, and to develop a plan of action to help our teachers planning the proper rollout strategy.
Join us for this important meeting .
MCPS parents with background in education, law, ethics, privacy, and information technology will present and facilitate the discussion.
Date: March 30, 2015, Monday
Time: 7pm to 8:30 pm EST
Location: Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Rd,
Bethesda, MD 20814 - Parking available on site.
AGENDA
1. Technology in the Classroom.
A. Preparation— students, parents, teachers.
B. Testing—PARCC & other testing issues , safety and more.
Organized by
Parents For the Responsible Use of Technology in School
That's how corporate giants work.
ReplyDeleteThey spend money on marketing and advertising and then make a profit on the inflated product prices.
As always, Valerie Strauss ignores what goes on right in her own backyard.
ReplyDeleteJerry Weast took one of these Pearson trips and the Parents' Coalition exposed this trip on this blog.
Pearson Education: Apart from $8 million spent lobbying from 2009 to 2014, Pearson also underwrote untold sums on luxury trips for school officials. A crackdown by the New York attorney general led to a $7.7 million settlement in 2013, and the shuttering of the “charitable” organization used for the scheme. The company is currently embroiled in a lawsuit in New Mexico for alleged bid rigging when landing an “unprecedented” $1 billion contract for K-12 testing with no other bidders, an allegation the company denied but which warrants greater scrutiny by policymakers.
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http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2011/12/pearson-foundation-grant-sends-weast.html
We must hold our elected officials accountable for the dinners, vacations and campaign money they accept in exchange for favors to this industry.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty hard to do given the fact that they only appear in public around reelection time and then they vanish into the woodwork.
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