Small voices raised in unison apparently rang loud and clear, saying essentially thanks but no thanks to the controversial inBloom student data collection project. Community concerns reached the ears of NY legislators and, as first reported Monday afternoon by NY State Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, inBloom has been blocked by New York State lawmakers.
Both Assemblyman Zebrowski, who represents parts of Rockland County, including the Town of Ramapo, and NY State Senator David Carlucci were critical of the inBloom program.
Budget briefing #1: NY cancels contract with “In Bloom” and protects student data.
— Ken Zebrowski (@kenzebrowski_ny) March 31, 2014
The state Education Department under Commissioner John King received a groundswell of pressure from parents, educators and other organizations that eventually convinced lawmakers to pass legislation Monday that blocks the storage of identifiable student data on the inBloom cloud. The legislation prohibits the New York State Education Department (NYSED) from providing student information that would be used by other companies involved in working with dashboard data on inBloom project.
According to The Journal News education writer Gary Stern, who has covered Common Core issues extensively, the state “had already transferred extensive student records to inBloom and planned to add students’ names and addresses soon.”
Budget briefing #3: the manufacturing tax incentives are extended to include Rockland County
— Ken Zebrowski (@kenzebrowski_ny) March 31, 2014
The new state law will require inBloom to delete any student data already uploaded to the Atlanta-based non-profit company, which was seeded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is a major supporter of the inBloom student data project.
“We will not store any student data with inBloom,” said NYSED spokesman Dennis Tompkins in a statement, according to Stern’s. Tompkins added that the department directed inBloom to “securely delete the non-identifiable data that has been stored.”
Budget briefing #5: included in the budget is a version of my bill requiring disclosure of who paid for political advertisements.
— Ken Zebrowski (@kenzebrowski_ny) March 31, 2014
New York is obligated under its participation in the federal Race to the Top program to develop and process student data as part of the state’s measurement of student performance. The NYSED will explore how the state’s 37 BOCES organizations or Boards of Cooperative Educational Services can provide technology services to district schools that will essentially store and sort student data that can be shared by parents and educators in a portal system similar to inBloom.
Pleasantville Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter said that school superintendent advocacy across the state helped to block inBloom.
“The planned upload of student data into the national inBloom superstructure generated many privacy, profiteering and profiling concerns,” Fox-Alter said to LoHud.
