Common Core- Student Data Collection and Privacy

CUSD Community Forum November 20, 2013 opened with a lengthly discussion of the process used to adopt the Common Core State Standards and then switched to questions regarding "data mining" and student privacy rights. 

The first six minutes of the forum discussing this issue can be heard at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iomAD0gOLZY&feature=youtu.be

In 2010 forty five states rushed to adopt Common Core State Standards because adoption of the standards were tied to waivers from No Child Left Behind and Federal Race to the Top funds. The Motivation For The Adoption of Common Core States Standards Was Financial Incentives And Not The Quality Of The Standards Themselves (the standards had not been written yet). Twenty States are now in the process of rejecting the National Standards in order to maintain State Sovereignty. 
(See: http://sanjuancapistrano.patch.com/groups/eye-on-education/p/common-core-who-is-behind-common-core)  
(See: http://sanjuancapistrano.patch.com/groups/eye-on-education/p/20-states-rethinking-their-adoption-of-...)

The Issue Raised by One Gentleman: Does the Common Core State Standards violate Federal Laws and undermine the 10th Amendment to our Constitution by giving the Federal Government the right to control school curriculum?

The following Video's are from the http://stopcommoncore.com/  and do a very good job of explaining the controversy regarding how Common Core was adopted by individual states.

Part 1 of 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coRNJluF2O4
Part 2 of 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8FJ1U90HIg
Part 3 of 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnpqT_XirPo
Part 4 of 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geLCamWdblE
Part 5 of 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjJFjNx6jOI

As a condition of applying for Race to the Top grant funding, states obligated themselves to implement a State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) used to track students by obtaining personally identifiable information. 
(See National Education Data Model: http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/index.aspx)

States already collect data on students. When that data is "shared" with the Federal Government, the personal information is stripped out of the data. The question is, will that change under the new Common Core State Standards which seek to personalize education? 

For a sneak peak of what the future of education will look like under the new Common Core State Standards watch:

Victoria's Story: School of Thought - A Vision For The Future Of Learning prepared by Pearson North America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7idyNIvVCis

With that in mind- every parent should read California Senate Bill (SBX5 1) Adoption of the Common Core to see what our California Legislators have committed to:

To read the full text of the Bill see: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sbx5_1_bill_20100107_chaptered.html

These are some of the things that caught my eye when reading the actual piece of legislation:

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

California is now obligated to implement a State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) used to track students by obtaining personally identifiable information.  

 "(1) The Education Data and Information Act of 2008 requires the State Chief Information Officer to convene a working group representing specified governmental entities that collect, report, or use individual pupil education data to create a strategic plan to link education data systems and to accomplish objectives relating to the accessibility of education data. This bill, in addition, would authorize the State Department of Education, the University of California, the California State University, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the Employment Development Department, and the California School Information Services to enter into interagency agreements in order to facilitate specified objectives regarding the implementation of a longitudinal education data system and the transfer of education data."
"(6) Existing law establishes the California Education Information System, which consists of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, known as CALPADS, and the California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data System, known as CALTIDES. This bill would require CALPADS to be used to report data pursuant to specified federal programs, and would authorize data in the California Education Information System to be used by local educational agencies for purposes of evaluating teachers and administrators and making employment decisions, if those decisions comply with specified provisions of law."

"... (7) This bill would require the Superintendent, the state board, and any other entity or individual designated by the Governor to participate in the Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers or any associated or related interstate collaboration to jointly develop common high-quality standards or assessments aligned with the common set of standards. Existing law makes certain provisions of the Greene Act inoperative on July 1, 2011, and repeals all of the act's provisions on January 1, 2012."

"(8) Existing law requires local educational agencies to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, including other data elements deemed necessary by the Superintendent, with approval of the state board, to comply with federal reporting requirements delineated in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This bill would require local educational agencies to also retain other data elements deemed necessary by the Superintendent, with the approval of the state board, to comply with programs implemented pursuant to specified provisions of federal law, subject to the submission of an expenditure plan to the Department of Finance, as specified."

"(9) Existing law requires the director of the Employment Development Department to permit the use of any information in his or her possession to the extent necessary for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the State Department of Education, the University of California, the California State University, and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to obtain quarterly wage data on students in order to meet the requirements of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to the extent permitted by federal law."

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

... (d) Create robust data systems linking prekindergarten, K-12, higher education and workforce data to measure student success, improve instruction and student learning, and inform teachers, principals, students, policymakers, and the public of school performance.