FBI PSA: EDUCATION TECHNOLOGIES: DATA COLLECTION AND UNSECURED SYSTEMS COULD POSE RISKS TO STUDENTS

The FBI is encouraging public awareness of cyber threat concerns related to K-12 students. The US school systems’ rapid growth of education technologies (EdTech) and widespread collection of student data could have privacy and safety implications if compromised or exploited...


https://www.ic3.gov/media/2018/180913.aspx

The Benjamin Center: Failing the Test #Pearson

by Fred Smith, retired administrative analyst with the New York City public school system, with Robin Jacobowitz, Director of Education Projects at the Benjamin Center

...In a soon-to-be released report, Fred Smith, retired administrative analyst with the New York City public school system, in partnership with the Benjamin Center, explores the efficacy of the testing program by examining the constructed response questions (CRQs) on the ELA tests, with a focus on zero scores. These questions require students to provide written answers which can earn from zero to two (0-2) or zero to four (0-4) points, as judged by trained scorers.
Why zeroes? Because a zero on a CRQ reflects a student’s complete inability to cope with the test material. According to the test scoring rubrics, a zero is given to an answer that is “totally inaccurate,” “unintelligible,” or “indecipherable.” Keep in mind that a student can get a score of one (1) for partial answers and even incomplete sentences. A zero (0), then, represents an irrelevant or incomprehensible answer. We studied how the percentage of zero scores changed with the advent of Common Core-aligned assessments.
A snapshot of our key findings shows:

• A steep increase in the percentage of students receiving zeroes on the CRQs in 2013 when the CC-aligned tests debuted 

• Particularly sharp increases, sustained over time, in the percentage of zeroes for students in Grades 3 and 4 and for English Language Learners and students with disabilities 

• Higher zero scores for Black and Hispanic students compared to White and Asian students...  

https://hawksites.newpaltz.edu/currents/2018/04/13/failing-the-test/

Pearson to Ax 3,000 Jobs, Slash Dividend #mcps #mocoboe #pearsonforward #achievementgap

LONDON—Education company Pearson PLC on Friday said it plans to cut around 3,000 jobs and would slash its dividend, as tough conditions in the industry are forcing it to reshape its business.

The job cuts are the latest as part of a restructuring program as the London-listed...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pearson-to-axe-3-000-jobs-pretax-loss-narrows-1501830070

Education publisher Pearson reports biggest loss in its history #jerryweast #pearsonforward #pearson #nobid

Pearson has reported a pre-tax loss of £2.6bn for 2016, the biggest in its history, after a slump at its US education operation.
The world’s largest education publisher, which in January saw almost £2bn wiped from its stock market value after issuing its fifth profit warning in two years, reported the record loss after taking a £2.55bn non-cash charge for “impairment of goodwill reflecting trading pressures” in its North American businesses...

...The profit warning was prompted by the collapse of its US higher education business, which is struggling with a decline in textbook sales and the transition to digital learning. The US business accounts for two-thirds of Pearson’s revenues and profits...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/24/education-publisher-pearson-loss-us-penguin-random-house?CMP=share_btn_tw

I Can’t Answer These Texas Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems

When I realized I couldn’t answer the questions posed about two of my own poems on the Texas state assessment tests (STAAR Test), I had a flash of panic – oh, no! Not smart enough. Such a dunce. My eyes glazed over. I checked to see if anyone was looking. The questions began to swim on the page. Waves of insecurity. My brain in full spin.

The two poems in question are A REAL CASE, appearing on the 2014 Grade 7 STAAR Reading Test, and MIDNIGHT, appearing on the 2013 Grade 8 STAAR Reading Test. Both poems originally appeared in Walking on the Boundaries of Change, Boyds Mills Press, 1998.

Let me begin by confessing that A REAL CASE is my most neurotic poem. I have a pile of them to be sure, but this one is the sour cherry on top. The written evidence of my anxieties, those evil gremlins that ride around on tricycles in my mind shooting my self-confidence with water pistols. How in the name of all that’s moldy did this poem wind up on a proficiency test?

Dose of reality: test makers are for-profit organizations. My poems are a whole lot cheaper than Mary Oliver’s or Jane Kenyon’s, so there’s that. But how would your vulnerable, nervous, number two pencil-gripping seventh grade self have felt opening your test packet to analyze poetic lines such as this: I’m just down with a sniffly case/of sudden-self-loathing-syndrome…an unexpected extra serving/ of just-for-now-self-hate.

Seriously? Hundreds of my poems in print and they choose THAT one? Self-loathing and self-hate? Kids need an extra serving of those emotions on testing day?

I apologize to those kids. I apologize to their teachers. Boy howdy, I apologize to the entire state of Texas. I know the ‘90s were supposed to be some kind of golden age, but I had my bad days and, clearly, these words are the pan drippings of one of them. Did I have a purpose for writing it?...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/standardized-tests-are-so-bad-i-cant-answer-these_us_586d5517e4b0c3539e80c341

Pearson rejects call by unions to change its test-centric business strategy

A union-backed resolution calling for Pearson to change its business strategy and to stop relying so much on high-stakes testing in the United States was rejected this week at the annual general meeting of the world’s largest education company.
A coalition of unions — the Britain-based TU Fund Managers, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and Unison, which is one of the largest trade unions in Britain — along with 130 individuals had offered a resolution demanding that Pearson “conduct a thorough business strategy review of Pearson PLC, including education commercialization and its support of high-stakes testing and low-fee private schools and to report to shareholders within six months.” It sought an end to what they say is Pearson’s “over-reliance” on educational testing in the United States as well as to the company’s growing business of opening and operating private schools in the developing world. (Read the resolution here.)...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/04/30/pearson-rejects-call-by-unions-to-change-its-test-centric-business-strategy/?postshare=2421462035148630&tid=ss_fb

Less than half of students in Maryland pass PARCC

Less than half of Maryland elementary and middle school students can pass the tough new standardized tests, a result school officials attribute to an overhaul of teaching and testing standards in the past several years. Maryland raised the standards for what public school students are expected to learn two years ago and the results show that teachers and students have not yet adjusted to the higher expectations of the new Partnership for Assessments of Career and College Readiness or PARCC.
On the reading test, nearly 40 percent of Maryland students in grades three through eight failed to meet the standard set by educators from Maryland and about 10 other states. Only 30 percent met the standard in math. That standard could be adjusted by the Maryland State school board if they believe it is too high.
"We have set the bar high, and this data reflects that," said Interim State Schools Superintendent Jack Smith, in a statement. "These results should be viewed in combination with other measures when assessing student progress."
The results were not as good as those in Massachusetts and New Jersey, but slightly better than those in Illinois, Louisiana and Rhode Island. Not all of the states that give the test have released all of their data yet...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-parcc-scores-20151208-story.html

Pearson shares plunge after education publisher cuts forecasts

LONDON Oct 21 (Reuters) - Pearson shares plunged as much as 18 percent on Wednesday after the world's biggest education publisher said earnings would be worse than expected, partly because fewer students were enrolling at U.S. colleges...

 http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N12L0UY20151021

Franchot flips out over standardized testing contract #pearson

"I think there's a bigger issue about our state's relationship with this company," said Franchot.

 http://marylandreporter.com/2015/08/26/franchot-flips-out-over-standardized-testing-contract/

Pearson monitoring social media for security breaches during PARCC testing

Pearson, the world’s largest education company, is monitoring social media during the administration of the new PARCC Common Core test to detect any security breaches, and a spokeswoman said that it was “obligated” to alert authorities when any problems were discovered.
The superintendent of a New Jersey school district wrote an e-mail to colleagues (see below) about the monitoring, saying that she found the practice “a bit disturbing.”
Students in New Jersey are now taking the PARCC, a Common Core test created by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of two multi-state consortia given $360 million in federal funds to design new standardized tests that align with the Common Core State Standards. PARCC testing is underway in several other states amid a growing opt-out movement by parents who are refusing to allow their children to take the test. Pearson has a contract of more than $100 million to administer the PARCC in New Jersey.
News of the monitoring of social media was revealed in a message that Superintendent Elizabeth C. Jewett of Watchung Hills Regional High School District in New Jersey sent to colleagues about a disturbing episode that she was made aware of by her district’s testing coordinator. It was posted on the Web site of Bob Braun, a former reporter, education editor and senior columnist at the Star-Ledger, who called the monitoring of social media nothing less than “spying.”...

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/14/pearson-monitoring-social-media-for-security-breaches-during-parcc-testing/

MCPS Says Parents Have No Need To Worry About Classroom Chromebook Privacy

Parents at the meeting last week also expressed concern about Pearson Education, the company that has its hands in a number of educational products, including the upcoming Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers or PARCC tests.
Unlike Google, Pearson has not signed the pledge against using student information for advertising purposes. This year, MCPS rolled out myMCPS, a new online class registration system for middle and high schoolers that uses Pearson technology.

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2015/02/26/mcps-says-parents-have-no-need-to-worry-about-classroom-chromebook-privacy/#more-28240

Politico: In the high-stakes world of American education, Pearson makes money even when its results don’t measure up. #curriculum2.0 #pearsonforward

...A POLITICO investigation has found that Pearson stands to make tens of millions in taxpayer dollars and cuts in student tuition from deals arranged without competitive bids in states from Florida to Texas. The review also found Pearson’s contracts set forth specific performance targets — but don’t penalize the company when it fails to meet those standards. And in the higher ed realm, the contracts give Pearson extensive access to personal student data, with few constraints on how it is used...

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/pearson-education-115026.html#ixzz3RMgaET1X

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NOTE:  The MCPS - Pearson curriculum deal was cut without competitive bids.  Previous Superintendent Jerry Weast made the Pearson deal with authority from the Board of Education to enter into such a contract, without an Request for Proposal and without taking bids from other companies.  MCPS falls squarely into the discussion in this article.

Identical: Pearson & MCPS Curriculum Guides

Do Montgomery County parents and guardians get that their children are learning the exact same math, reading, science, social studies and writing curriculum being used across the country by Pearson?

MCPS no longer has a local curriculum or even a Maryland State curriculum, MCPS is using Pearson Education, Inc.'s curriculum.

Parents and guardians in other states have rallied against the Pearson curriculum and tests, but not here in Montgomery County.
 
In some jurisdictions Pearson testing has even been dropped, but not here in Montgomery County. 

For parents and guardians that don't understand that their children are receiving a Pearson Education, Inc. curriculum here in Montgomery County, here is a visual to help make the point.

At this link is the Pearson Grade 1 curriculum guide.

Below is the MCPS "Integrated Curriculum" Grade 1 curriculum guide.  The pink highlighting shows where the words and sentences used to describe the curriculum are identical to the words and sentences in the Pearson guide above.  Yet, the MCPS guide doesn't mention Pearson or the Pearson trademark anywhere on the document.

Note that Pearson does not do curriculum for art, music, health, physical education and information literacy in their guide.

   Pearson - MCPS Grade 1 Curriculum Guide comparison by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Parent says no mush for his first-grader

...“Notice what’s missing,” Petrilli said. “Proper nouns. Which historical figures will he study? Time periods? Which countries or continents? People who study education for a living understand what’s going on — this is straight out of the standards promulgated by the National Council for the Social Studies, a professional organization that has long prized such ‘conceptual understanding’ over ‘rote facts and figures.’ ” He had found the kindergarten fare similarly mushy...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/parent-says-no-mush-for-his-first-grader/2014/10/05/6ce09484-4a9b-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html

Errors in Pearson's LA curriculum

...Also, California education officials have only approved Pearson’s math courses for grades Kindergarten through eighth grade. And the state found errors in every grade, from simple problems, like typos, to bigger issues, like learning standards that were not correctly applied...

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/08/25/17192/how-did-la-schools-decide-on-ipad-software-it-star/

LAUSD officials had close ties with Apple, Pearson execs, records show

Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy and his chief deputy developed a special relationship with executives from the companies that won a key technology contract, records show, raising new questions about the bidding process in a $1-billion effort to provide a computer to every student in the nation's second-largest school system. 

This collaboration between top L.A. Unified officials and those from tech giant Apple Inc. and Pearson, detailed in public records, underscores findings from an internal school district report, which warned that officials' actions could have created an impression of unfairness in the bidding...
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ipads-deasy-20140825-story.html#page=1

State BOE Issues Opinion in Elem. Accelerated Math Appeal, Tells MCPS Parent Go to Circuit Court for MPIA and to DOE for FERPA Complaints

  Philip P. Opin. No.14-39 MD State Board of Education by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

MCPS isn't #1

Apparently, Montgomery County Public Schools isn't even #1 in the State of Maryland.

See the charts released today by The Washington Post.

How is this going to impact sales of "highly rigorous" Pearson Forward?

The Board of Education is counting on the royalties from that super cool Superintendent Jerry Weast deal! (Free trip with purchase!)