Pleasantville School District Opts Out of Race to the Top Funds
The Pleasantville Board of Education approved a resolution on Oct. 22 to withdraw the district from participation in the federal Race to the Top program.
In return for a $6,000 grant distributed over four years, the district would be required to comply with a number of New York State requirements, including participation in an electronic data portal–a data dashboard. This dashboard has the potential to collect over 400 data elements that have been identified in the state Education Department’s data template dictionary. These data elements on students and their programs can be uploaded to InBloom, a cloud-based repository.
Pleasantville already has a password-protected system that provides student information to parents and protects student privacy; the data dashboard required by SED is both redundant and, through inclusion of personally identifiable information such as discipline flags, immunization shots, attendance and more, could violate students’ privacy rights. Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter said
“The potential for data mining is staggering,” said Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter. “It is frightening that corporations such as Pearson and EScholar are involved in this data cloud and are forecasting great profit in the K-12 public education market.”
Pleasantville joins other districts in the region, including Hastings, Hyde Park, Mount Pleasant, Pelham, Pocantico Hills and Rye Neck, in asking SED to address the specific concerns raised about student privacy and the potential use of student information as profit centers by corporate America.
The board, which shares in community concerns such as high stakes testing and unfunded and underfunded mandates, urges the public to attend the public forum being held this Monday, Oct. 28 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Port Chester Middle School, located at 113 Bowman Ave. State Education Commissioner John King and other state officials will listen to speakers’ concerns on the Common Core learning standards and related issues.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.