Refuse the AMP: Common Core

Showing posts with label Common Core. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

The AMP Suspended in the Midst of Greater Data Tracking

For many families, the most important reason to opt out of the test is the data collection and tracking of students by data collectors. The AMP is a data element in the P-20W Answers Project. So, while this blog is mainly about the right of parents to refuse or opt out of testing, the data issue is related to it. So Alaska, there is good news and bad news....

The Good News

The Alaska Department of Education has confirmed that the AMP has been suspended for 2016.

The Bad News

However, it seems that Alaskans were misled regarding the P-20W ANSWERS program. Remember being told that the P-20W/Answers project would sunset in 2015?

Guess what? It did not sunset. In fact, it seems to have new life, and a clone program in the Alaska Department of Labor. The clone program through the Department of Labor is yet unnamed, but is discussed here. It is very self explanatory, but a screen shot of what it says is below in case they decide to scrub it from their page.

So, it seems the Alaska Student Loan and the Alaska Commission on Post-secondary Education are committed to keeping this database alive anyway they can.

How did this happen? It was suppose to sunset in June 2015.....

The first reports that met our ears (and later our eyes) happened when the ANSWERS project did not sunset as it was scheduled in 2015. At first it appeared that the original P-20W grant was simply extended to 2016 by the Institute for Education Science as shown here.

You can go to the website and download the grant for yourself and see that it is the same one that was suppose to sunset in June 2015. In August 2015, the Alaska Department of Labor received a generous extension and funds.

It seems they also went hunting for more funds. This time they received funds from the US Department of Labor under the guise of Workforce Data Quality.

So, how long does round 5 WDQI keep ANSWERS going? It appears until 2018 based on their press release from the segment shown below:

What data does it cover? Well, we don't know because it is redacted. What is known is that it will continue to include the PFD data, the wage and occupation codes of every Alaskan who has a pay check, and where that person lives and works. The data is connected to the data held by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development in the On-line Alaska School Information System (OASIS).

People need to speak up and register their disapproval--or these agencies will take your silence as consent. The people of Alaska have the right to know what data is being collected on them and by whom and how that data is used. This is federal law. The state constitution also has strong right to privacy provisions, and the Alaska legislature is tasked with overseeing that provision of the state constitution.

Please contact your state representatives and state senators. Also, let your school district know that you are opposed to this data mining. Contact ACPE and give them your opinion on tracking your students without your consent. Also, don't forget the Governor Bill Walker at (907) 465-3500.

Monday, March 23, 2015

AMP and Common Core Uniform Electronic Numbers

Intrusions of the Mind--The ultimate invasion of privacy is the way the common core standards allow for an invasion to the mind.

One of the unique features of the Common Core standards is something called the Uniform Electronic Numbers (UENs). This is not a tin foil hat issue; it is on the Common Core Standards website. That is why when one looks at a Common Core book, the UENs on each concept are listed on the page.

Alaska's standards have UENs that are correlated to the Common Core standards. That is how activists on both sides of the argument know that the Alaska Standards and the Common Core are identical. The interested reader can download the PDF of this correlation--it begins on page 7. Please note that all of the Alaska Standards have a Common Core UEN assigned to them. A partial list is below. There is also a curriculum integrator verb list that is correlated to various domains that appear to be related to the AMP test and these UENs, or domain clusters.

In the event someone thinks this is fabricated, please download the whole document and turn to the notes at the end.

So, what is the deal with these UENs? According to the Common Core website,

"Unique identifiers are needed for humans and technology to refer to individual standards in a consistent manner. Three sets of canonical identifiers, as detailed below and now readily available here on www.corestandards.org, will maintain fidelity to the published and adopted documents, while acknowledging the wide variety of use cases, users, and systems needing to reference the standards..."

To conceptually understand these numbers, think of your child's knowledge as a supermarket of ideas and concepts. Think about each idea in the Common Core as a product on a supermarket shelf that has a scan code. Think about your child's knowledge deficits as a product that is missing from the knowledge inventory. With assignments and tests tied to the UENs, the theory is that any deficits in the stock of knowledge can be detected and remediated.

The UENs come in one of three forms. One form is the "dot" notation, and that is the one that most teachers see in the teacher guides and one sees referenced most frequently in the policy arena. The example given on the Common Core website is Math.6.EE.1, which would be readily referenced in the way the standards are presented. The second UEN form is called a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). This is used primarily for internet presentations of information. The third identifier is a Globally Unique Identifier (GUIDs). This latter number is an alpha numeric sequence that is useful for computer programmers.

Again, Alaska's Standards are correlated to the Common Core UEN and GUIDs. While the letter to Patrick Rooney is sufficient, the computer coding on the UENs through the GUIDs give it away. All the vendors know this, and when Commissioner Hanley makes his absurd statements that Alaska "didn't buy into the standards" it simply diminishes his credibility.

The ramifications of these UENs is huge for your child's privacy due to the way this information has been extended by researchers in the private sector. Pearson and a group of other companies have taken this research a step further. Just as a store might have a store map of product location based on the product code, Common Core developers have correlated this knowledge with areas of the brain through MRI imaging. This was presented at a White House sponsored summit in 2012 known as Datapalooza. The idea behind this brain mapping is the development of a unique brain identifier.

Below is a 3 minute synopsis of a two day event sponsored at the White House called Datapalooza 2012. It seems that the Common Core Standards are being used to correlate all these concepts and image them to the brain and correlate them to behavior modification. So, teachers may unknowingly be participating in contributing to these researchers through the use of products such as Powerschool. Further, since some districts ask teachers to back-up their Powerschool entries on OASIS and the Enterprise system.

In theory, these attributes could be accessed by the Alaska Department of Education, ACPE, and various vendors like Scholastic who have contracts and portals on that system. A friend of mine suggested that AK DEED isn't smart enough to know what to do with the data. They don't need to be smart enough, they only need to be smart enough to hire people who know how to use it.

The real policy question is this: Did any parents consent to this? Did Common Core supporters know this was behind the standards? Am I the only person out there who sees the inherent danger in all of this and the erosion of liberty? This information could be used to do good; but it could also be used to do incredible evil. I have no doubt that current policy makers have the best of intentions... it is the future ones that are of major concern. Governments can go rogue, data can be hacked, and wars happen. What are the ramifications of this information being stored for your child's future?