
It’s only a matter of time before the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, the bible
for psychiatrists, includes data-driven madness. But before that, the
purveyors of the knowledge economy will make a whole lot of money with cookies
and apps data-mining and warehousing us toward compulsive consumption.
Conspicuous? Hardly! That’s the secret of those who hold the
keys to the knowledge economy. And that’s why I heartily endorse a recent
Oregonian editorial advocating for a privacy bill of
rights!
Is education a commodity no different than the diapers and car
seats we buy? Or would parents consider their kids’ education records
sacrosanct? An EPIC question!
On February 29th, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) sued the
U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) to block changes to education privacy
rules. They believe the USDOE overstepped its legal bounds in
allowing non-governmental access to students’ records without parents’ written
consent. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, (a law passed by
Congress) is at stake.
Senator Wyden’s “Student Right to Know Before You Go Act” relies
on weakened privacy rules. This bill, Senator Wyden assures us, could generate ‘Carfax-style’
reports to help parents and students comparison shop for
college.
After all, college debts are consuming our kids’ futures to the tune of $1 trillion. $1,000,000,000,000. 1 x 1012 for math geeks. Can’t wrap your head around that one? Rest assured, bubble economies don’t grow out of thin air.
After all, college debts are consuming our kids’ futures to the tune of $1 trillion. $1,000,000,000,000. 1 x 1012 for math geeks. Can’t wrap your head around that one? Rest assured, bubble economies don’t grow out of thin air.
The “job creators” handsomely rewarded financial engineers and
bankers with their MIT and
Harvard degrees
for turning our economy upside down. Indeed, the “job creators” don’t care
about your spiraling college debts or whether that noose around your neck comes
from the U. of O. or University of Phoenix!
These same “job creators” also reward politicians who write laws
for the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is the golden goose
for corporate executives who meet with state legislators to write “model
legislation”.
With negative press growing, corporations are bailing out of
ALEC. Recently, the Gates Foundation
pulled out. Rest assured, Gates’ work is already done since ALEC has
already given birth to laws and rule changes that resemble the “Longitudinal
Student Growth Act,” the “Breach of Personal Information Notification Act,” and
the “Resolution Calling for Greater Productivity in American Higher Education.”
Four years ago, Gates convened 14 Western States (including
Oregon) to discuss linking data. A central topic of conversation was how to
address the challenges to data sharing presented by the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act. Following that, Oregon was one of four
states that participated in a Gates-funded
pilot project to create a Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange.
This would “enable a more comprehensive regional view of the creation of human
capital and its flow among multiple states… across K-12 education,
postsecondary education and the workforce.”
Most Oregon legislators don’t know that Oregon already has a
cradle-though-career database that will be up and running by June 30, 2012. Project ALDER (Advancing
Longitudinal Data for Education Reform) is a “key deliverable” for
the Oregon Education Investment Board to calculate a return on education
investment.
Project ALDER is compliments of Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan, who was given broad discretion to distribute $5.5 billion through the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. EcoNorthwest and the Chalkboard
Project gushed about the opportunity to use stimulus to
drive change and accelerate education reforms.
Project ALDER includes
five participating agencies: Oregon Department of Education, Oregon Department
of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, Oregon University Systems, Oregon
Teachers Standards and Practices Commission and Oregon Employment Department.
Data elements to be mined “possibly include, but are not limited to: First
Name, Last Name, Middle Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Gender,
Race/Ethnicity, Schools Attended, Address, City, State, and Phone Number.”
In a recent press release, the Gates Foundation boasted their partnership with Pearson Foundation. They are creating “a full series of digital instruction resources.”
Michael Winrip of the New York Times writes, “Experts in tax law say that Pearson appears to be using its foundation to push its business interests, which would be a violation of the federal tax code.” It’s hardly reassuring that Susan Castillo, Superintendent of the Oregon Department of Education, took a Pearson Foundation-sponsored trip to Brazil last September. This junket came as her influence wanes and Governor Kitzhaber wields temporary control over the appointed Oregon Education Investment Board.
In a recent press release, the Gates Foundation boasted their partnership with Pearson Foundation. They are creating “a full series of digital instruction resources.”
Michael Winrip of the New York Times writes, “Experts in tax law say that Pearson appears to be using its foundation to push its business interests, which would be a violation of the federal tax code.” It’s hardly reassuring that Susan Castillo, Superintendent of the Oregon Department of Education, took a Pearson Foundation-sponsored trip to Brazil last September. This junket came as her influence wanes and Governor Kitzhaber wields temporary control over the appointed Oregon Education Investment Board.
Then again, corporate sponsors of the Council of Chief State School Officers is a who's who list of knowledge and data brokers. Wireless Generation deserves special notice. Owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corps, it's run by the former Chancellor of the New York City Board of Education, Joel Klein. He's finagled a nearly $10 million no-bid contract, despite Murdoch's on-going phone hacking scandals and the consternation of New York City education activists. Wireless Generation has teamed up with the Shared Learning Collaborative, piloted in nine states, with $76,500,000 coming from the Gates Foundation to create an enormous money-making scheme. A shared learning infrastructure...
"When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching," said News Corporation Chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch.
When
a Project ALDER Data Center Move White Paper (pp. 78, 79)
praises the successful centralization of data at the Oregon State University
Open Source Lab,we can make inferences from these assertions:
- "The leaders in this project were more than just leaders; they were truly ‘enablers.’"
- "Turn your vendors into partners. Give them buy-in to the project and make sure that they know you value their opinion."
- "Buy the best product(s) you can afford for your project and plan for future expansions."
The
Project ALDER
Data Collection Committee lists Pearson as an “agency” and
Pearson employee, Rose Craighead, as State Reporting Business Analyst. Key
recommendations for the ALDER’s Data Warehouse include Microsoft Windows as the
operating system platform and Microsoft SQL
Server as the database platform for the data warehouse.
Since the
Oregon
Department of Education’s records retention schedule expires May 2012, it’s hard to know how long Microsoft, Pearson, other vendors and authorized
representatives can expand their digital footprints on our kids’
education and wage records. Perhaps life-long learning will come with an
unjustifiable sentence: indefinite warehousing of students as “human capital”
data points.
The
knowledge economy beckons digital miners in a modern-day gold rush. Education data breaches
keep cyber security and identity theft companies busy—and at great cost.
Yet Congress keeps
its hands off Internet governance—even when it involves student
privacy rights. When the Oregon Education Investment Board calculates a return
on investment, Oregonians should ask, “For whom?”
To open the Gates of knowledge, we need to connect the dots. Unfortunately, crony capitalism is a tough lesson to learn and even harder to correct.
To open the Gates of knowledge, we need to connect the dots. Unfortunately, crony capitalism is a tough lesson to learn and even harder to correct.
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