Another day of standardized testing, another controversy. The latest being around the administration of
the PARCC Common Core test
in New Jersey. In this case the
controversy is not over the usefulness of testing, or current
problems with the online test administration, but rather the monitoring of
social media by the testing company, Pearson, to detect test cheaters and other
irregularities. The controversy is
detailed in this
Washington Post blog, with a superintendent being upset by the perceived
big brother monitoring of their students.
Why is this at all disturbing?
Haven’t we always monitored students and schools during high stakes
testing? Test administrators and
monitors are rigorously trained, certified, and then required to monitor
schools and testing, to ensure a fair testing environment for all students. As much time and money as states and schools
spend on this massive undertaking for arguably little return, is it wrong that
Pearson monitors publicly posted social media posts? If a student, teacher, or administrator
chooses to publicly post test questions to social media during a test, then
they have made a poor choice, violated testing rules, and must face the fall
out. But there
are allegations detailed here that the spying was in fact looking at
private student social media posts. If
those were somehow monitored or if action was taken on students’ opinions of
the test, then shame on those involved. But
come on, to call monitoring public social media posts “spying” shows a lack of
understanding of social media that is for all
intents is public information.
Showing posts with label student. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student. Show all posts
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Are testing companies really "spying" on students if they monitor social media during testing?
Another day of standardized testing, another controversy. The latest being around the administration of
the PARCC Common Core test
in New Jersey. In this case the
controversy is not over the usefulness of testing, or current
problems with the online test administration, but rather the monitoring of
social media by the testing company, Pearson, to detect test cheaters and other
irregularities. The controversy is
detailed in this
Washington Post blog, with a superintendent being upset by the perceived
big brother monitoring of their students.
Why is this at all disturbing?
Haven’t we always monitored students and schools during high stakes
testing? Test administrators and
monitors are rigorously trained, certified, and then required to monitor
schools and testing, to ensure a fair testing environment for all students. As much time and money as states and schools
spend on this massive undertaking for arguably little return, is it wrong that
Pearson monitors publicly posted social media posts? If a student, teacher, or administrator
chooses to publicly post test questions to social media during a test, then
they have made a poor choice, violated testing rules, and must face the fall
out. But there
are allegations detailed here that the spying was in fact looking at
private student social media posts. If
those were somehow monitored or if action was taken on students’ opinions of
the test, then shame on those involved. But
come on, to call monitoring public social media posts “spying” shows a lack of
understanding of social media that is for all
intents is public information. 
Thursday, August 25, 2011
JISD Technology Services Student Intern Featured in San Antonio Express News and Mysa.com
 |
| Screen shot 2010-07-13 at 3.45.02 PM.png |
Judson ISD Technology Services is delighted that the San Antonio Express News featured one of our student summer interns, Jaleisha Smith, in their article in their July 11th Sunday newspaper.
The full article and photo are here. Thanks again to the San Antonio Express News and Mysa.com for this very positive news feature!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)