Dive Brief:
- After a New Jersey student at Watchung Hills Regional High School tweeted about the PARCC exam, it came out that Pearson, the company that authored the test, has been monitoring social media references to the exam.
- Superintendent Elizabeth Jewett was told by the state Department of Education that “Pearson is monitoring all social media during PARCC testing," and since then, an email she wrote calling the surveillance trend "a bit disturbing" has been shared by thousands on Facebook.
- While the New Jersey Department of Education says this sort of monitoring “is not new, nor is it unique to this test," teachers and students interviewed by PIX11 had other thoughts, with many calling it an "invasion of privacy."
Dive Insight:
While Pearson is not necessarily doing anything with data on what students are saying about the test, it does add a degree of frustration to parents and teachers who already feel like education has become monetized and marketed back to them. While tweets are technically public, the idea of a corporation scoping out what children are saying has some questioning privacy issues. There is also a fear that students will be punished for opting out of the exam.
While New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe has been positive about the number of students taking the PARCC exam, the reality is that there has been a loud faction pushing back, especially in that state. At Princeton Public Schools, for example, an estimated 800 out of 1,164 students in grades 9-10 sat the test out.