Formal Response to CCSSO Student Data Privacy
National Anti-Common Core Statement on the State School Chiefs’ Letter Regarding Data Privacy
We the undersigned organizations, representing millions of families and teachers across the nation, issue the following statement in response to the January 23rd, 2014 letter by thirty-four chief state school officers to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan regarding student data privacy:
This letter is their attempt to reassure the public that individual student data would not be given to the federal government by the states in the federal testing consortia, that there is a prohibition on the creation of a national database, and that states will be in control of student assessment data. Unfortunately, none of that is true. As is shown in the formal response to this letter by Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, the assurances in this letter are essentially meaningless. Current federal law and regulations, the cooperative agreement between the national testing consortia and the federal government, and statements in federal reports all show that the federal government will receive individual student data one way or the other.
“The letter is deceptive,” said Effrem. “The states may not give the individual student test data to the federal government, but the cooperative agreement and the federal FERPA regulations require or allow the consortia to give individual test and other student data to the feds without consent.”
“This is just a bait and switch effort meant to appease worried parents and politicians that are feeling the heat from angry constituents,” agreed Angela Davidson Weinzinger, founder of Parents and Educators Against Common Core.
As state and national grassroots organizations opposed to the implementation of the Common Core system of federally supported or controlled national standards, tests, and data collection that will be destructive to our children’s future and our nation’s freedom, we concur with this analysis.
The only way to truly protect our children’s data is to restore local control of education that has been usurped by the unconstitutional presence and actions of the US Department of Education. Until that ultimate goal is reached, we will work to remove each of our states from the state longitudinal data systems and demand genuine state developed standards and assessments, instead of name changes, cosmetic adjustments to the Common Core standards, and deceptive reassurances about state control of test data.
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
- Education Liberty Watch
- Badass Parents Association
- Badass Teachers Association
- Home School Legal Defense Association
- Parent-Led Reform
- Parents and Educators Against Common Core
- Special Ed Advocates to Stop Common Core
STATE ORGANIZATIONS:
- Alabama Eagle Forum
- Alabamians United for Excellence in Education
- Arkansas Against Common Core
- Core Concerns, Fort Collins
- Stop Common Core in CT
- Florida Stop Common Core Coalition
- Florida Parents Against Common Core
- Georgians to Stop Common Core
- Idahoans for Local Education
- Hoosiers Against Common Core
- Iowans for Local Control
- Kansans Against Common Core
- Parents and Educators Against Common Core Standards in Kentucky
- MA Parents Interested in Common Core
- Massachusetts Coalition for Superior Education Standards
- Stop Common Core in Michigan
- Minnesotans Against Common Core
- Missouri Coalition Against Common Core
- Parent Led Reform Nevada
- C5-NJ (the Committee to Combat the Common Core Curriculum-NJ)
- NM Refuse the Tests
- Stop Common Core in New York State
- Parent Led Reform Oregon
- South Dakotans Against Common Core
- Parent Led Reform Texas
- Stop Common Core in Virginia
- Washington State Against Common Core Standards
- Wyoming Freedom in Education
