| Pearson and SBAC monitoring of student and teacher social media posts is a necessity given the high stakes we have attached to these tests. "All these consequences create reasons for people to game the system -- and this has been the hallmark of NCLB from its inception, says Anthony Cody, who posted yesterday that the high-stakes of the new testing system inevitably leads to high surveillance. Add to the high stakes the fact that the two tests are national, and you have a scenario in which the testing corporations are expecting teachers and administrators to help them spy on students' social media. Apparently Pearson (and not Pearson alone) has a means of monitoring millions of students' postings on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere, using key words as alerts. By creating a state-sponsored "accountability" system that attaches heavy consequences to student performance on tests, the state and its corporate test-making partners have created a compelling need for extensive surveillance of everyone that accountability system touches. Teacher and administrator evaluations and thus jobs depend on these scores. Schools may be closed. Funding to schools is increased or reduced. And the tests are supposed to determine which students are ready for college. |
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