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Testing

Is Pearson’s Scanning of Students’ Social Media Spying or Smart Security?

BY March 24, 2015
This month the Washington Post reported that testing giant Pearson has been monitoring students’ social media accounts, looking for evidence of test security violations on the PARCC assessment. The story broke in New Jersey but given Pearson’s “yep, we did it” response, it’s probably reasonable to expect that it’s happening elsewhere. Cue outrage from parents, politicians and the AFT. Frankly, the only thing about this that is surprising is that it’s surprising to anyone. If you have a presence on the Internet, you are being monitored. This is not black helicopter stuff. It’s just reality. The fact of the matter is that social media is, well, social. Is a person or an employer or a testing company who looks at something you actively put in public space spying on you? Sure, it seems kind of creepy that old man Pearson is lurking on kids’ Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. But I didn’t read any evidence that they did anything other than monitor information that’s already public. The company has a responsibility to maintain the integrity of its product. Lots of districts are using it. It’s an important and consequential test for kids and schools. And they aren’t all administering it simultaneously, creating an opportunity for malfeasance. States invested a lot of resources in these assessments, and that investment must be protected. It’s part of what they paid for. This story strikes me as a red herring on two fronts. First, the anti-testing crowd is using inflammatory words like “spying” to gin up support for their side. Second, it’s getting conflated with real concerns about the security of student data. With multi-million dollar companies like Target settling class action lawsuits for giant data breaches, the ability of government entities collecting massive amounts of data to protect it is a serious issue that warrants serious debate. Instead of demonizing Pearson or testing in general, it strikes me that there are two legitimate takeaways here. For one, students who were posting about testing items shouldn’t have been. So someone should talk to them about that. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to talk to students about the complete and utter lack of privacy the Internet affords. There is evidence that kids are dangerously naïve on this front. Are Pearson’s actions here wrong? I don’t think so. Are they discomforting? Yes. The fact that it involves kids makes it seem worse; and the fact that Pearson’s practices got singled out makes it seem egregious. But they aren’t substantively different from the practices of countless other companies (and schools, colleges, etc.) that scan all of our Internet activities every day, regardless of how old we are.
Jennifer Schiess is an Associate Partner with Bellwether Education Partners. Previously, she spent a decade working with the Texas Legislature, most recently serving as the primary adviser to the legislature on school finance and a range of other public education issues. An earlier version of this post appeared on the "Ahead of the Heard" blog.
Photo by Tobias Leeger, CC-licensed.
Jennifer O’Neal Schiess is a partner with Bellwether Education Partners on the Policy and Evaluation team. Since 2014, she has worked with a range of clients, including national and state advocacy organizations, nonprofits, policy think tanks, and foundations. She advises clients on state and national education policy, covering a range of topics. ...
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