Nosy Data Mining In Public Schools Is Straight From
Communist Playbook
By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. | November 8, 2015 Education Views
All 50 states have been mandated by the U.S. Department of Education to establish inter-connected “longitudinal databases” accumulating information on every student from pre-kindergarten through workforce (P-20W)!
Student privacy was shredded in 2011 when the U.S. Department of Education seized unauthorized authority. With the stroke of a pen, the USDOE reinterpreted the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g) to allow a student’s academic record to be shared with virtually anyone, including non-governmental organizations, without prior written parental consent. For-profit education technology companies can use the FERPA information to develop software for students, teachers, and administrators.
In 2013 Texas passed HB 2103 permitting student data to be shared with the TEA, Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and education research centers. The data which covers the 20 preceding years can be accessed by research students. The data also can include confidential information from FERPA that no longer requires parental consent for access because of illegal actions by the USDOE. HB 2103 places Texas students at grave risk because any personal information collected in Texas can now be shared widely and with far ranging consequences.
Common Core standardized state tests glean student-specific data to be stored by the states in their new longitudinal data systems. In Texas, some ISDs have been awarded Race-to-the-Top for Districts (RTT-D) funding which automatically binds the ISDs to Common Core Standards and data mining being shared with third parties without parental permission.
The collected data includes hobbies, psychological evaluations, medical records, religious affiliation, political affiliation, family income, behavioral problems, disciplinary history, career goals, addresses, sex of parents, and bus stop times/locations.
Data is also gathered during class with students being intimidated into filling out lengthy nosy surveys/questionnaires that violate the student’s right to privacy. These questionnaires capture highly personal information, including whether there are guns in the home and whether the student is afraid to be at home. Teachers are required to electronically record student information, including attitudinal and other non-academic information (behavioral science), which remains in the permanent file that follows the student throughout life and will be available to many, including employers and the federal government seeking out dissidents among conservatives.
It has become commonplace for Christian students to be marginalized and punished severely by various methods if they refuse to fall in line with the leftist agenda that is pervasive in public schools across the nation. Labeled trouble makers, these children receive negative reviews in their permanent files.
Eerily, this is straight from the Communist playbook!
Americans must demand that their elected representatives pass legislation requiring schools to
- cease all data mining for personal information and for attitudinal traits through tests, surveys taken during classes, teacher reports, or any other method; and
- purge all personal and attitudinal student information from student records and specifically from permanent records.
In addition, Texans must repeal HB 2103 that allows personal student data to be shared with third parties in violation of the student’s right to privacy.
Copyright 2015 Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. All rights reserved.