I found a really good article related to Common Core, Pearson, and internet privacy here. Here’s a look at what the article talks about:
“Pearson said the social media monitoring was mandated by its testing contracts in order to make sure no questions were leaked, was confined only to public posts, and, according to the company, involved no “snooping” other than looking at hashtags and basic information students put in their profiles. It had been standard practice for years;Politico reported that all but one other major testing company performed the same type of monitoring, as do hundreds of school districts across the country.”
Let me know what you think!
Teaching Math 
I think this raises some interesting questions around privacy. I do agree with the perspective raised in the article that Pearson is getting more heat than they probably should due to the fact that they are advocates for the Common Core, a controversial topic. For me, this raises the question around the distinction between the Common Core as principles (in the abstract) and the way in which they are implemented and tested (enter Pearson). I firmly believe in the principles of the Common Core, especially the 8 mathematical practices. However, my experiences with the implementation of Common Core (such as Engage NY) have been a bit disappointing thus far.
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Thanks for sharing! I feel like public controversies like this contribute to the negative public image of the common core, which is really unfortunate! And, since the enthusiasm for the story dies off before all the truth of the matter is reveled, I bet most people who criticized CC and Pearson are no longer following this story or it’s outcome. But, this article concluded with projections about Pearson’s public image, so not as relevant. I will say that I’ve seen and interacted with Pearson’s ipad app for common core, which is pretty cool! (I wrote more about it in my post on the Bay Area Mathematics Project seminar I went to https://misssmrekar.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/learning-with-technology/)
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It is nice to see Common Core go down; maybe this ‘bad move’ will finally get us enough bi-partisan support for getting rid of standardized exams. From my perspective anyway, this isn’t an example of federal government overreach; it’s an example of corporate/ Bill Gates overreach. One thing that would be really beautiful is if conservatives understood this as an example of corporate overreach instead of federal government overreach. The older Politico article on Bill Gates and CCSS is really helpful.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bill-gates-pulled-off-the-swift-common-core-revolution/2014/06/07/a830e32e-ec34-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html
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I am not sure I can be upset with a company looking at public posts about items it is concerned about – if I worked at Pearson, I would probably search/read posts/articles/tweets about Pearson too. If I worked on the PARCC (?) test, I would read posts for reactions to the test and see if parts of it are being leaked. It is often the job of marketers to review public opinion; why shouldn’t it be the job of test security groups to see if the test was leaked (in part or as a whole)?
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Wow, that is a little creepy if Pearson is monitoring social media, and especially children’s social media, since children are vulnerable when it comes to internet privacy. To me, this highlights the need for us to more closely interrogate the relationships that form between for-profit enterprises and our government.
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