So who’s concerned about TikTok giving away your teen’s home videos to the Chinese government today? Welp never fear, the Tik Tok Ban is here and ready to protect your data from being in the hands of nefarious actors. Not really but this is the storyline weaponized for political theater and to scare parents who already have no clue what’s going on with their children’s data in the nebulous internet world. But sadly, while the country is paying attention to big tech and demanding more transparency around their child’s data, K-12 schools are begrudgingly compliant, yet silent on how they access, share and disseminate student data to parents. Yes, parents may sign some type of form or something at the beginning of the year, with boilerplate notification that student data is protected and blah- blah-blah. However, what happens to the mounds of it that is collected everyday beyond just protecting it? I mean I am a teacher and in modern teaching everything we do from taking attendance, a class warmup, to formative assessments we are collecting data. Yet, in highly transient populations ( poorer communities especially) this data stays with the teacher and rarely is disseminated or transferred to parents, students or even new schools in meaningful ways outside of a report card, or if you are lucky, a parent-teacher conference. So I am more concerned about what schools are doing with all this information for 13 years of my child’s life than with the newest social media tech platform’s data uses. IJS.
So what happens? Specifically in Georgia, along with 36 other states, the state invested millions since 2003 to develop the State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) to connect district-level student information systems to the statewide system, ensuring that student records, state and local testing records, and achievement data goes with them when they change districts and all stakeholders have immediate access to this important data. In theory, this is brilliant because kids change a lot over 13 years and move a lot too so it makes sense to have systems talking to each other and tracking their growth for policy makers and parents to make data-informed decisions. However, over the past 3 months I have engaged several different stakeholders, parents, teachers, school and district leaders and the answer is clear, in our urban district most have no clue or have no interest in using the SLDS system but instead focus on their local data platforms. What’s wrong with this strategy? Well, these local data platforms that districts invest millions to maintain leaves the information siloed and far-removed from the very people who need it. Unfortunately, the information gets stuck in a system and really does not reach stakeholders (including students and parents) in meaningful and relevant ways that show them how it impacts their lives and their children. This is terrible. Who needs data stuck in a computer? No one. Everyone wants to use the buzzwords “data-driven decisions” but WHO has the data to drive decisions is a crucial question our schools need to truly reflect on in this season where we are remote learning at home. If schools have the data about kids and parents don’t as they help them navigate the online learning then what good is this data protected and stored in a fancy data platform. Lots of schools have fancy data platforms and data dives, but I say it all doesn’t matter if it is not integrated into a larger context ( like a SLDS) and disseminated to parents and students in relevant and meaningful ways. Like Georgia’s SLDS has a parent portal for parents to review important domain-specific growth areas, but most data platforms that district- level Chief Information Officers (CIO) purchase are teacher-centered, clunky and hard to understand for parents and students. It’s like we invest in data tools to benefit schools when the end user should be students and parents to build more autonomy and agency with them. This practice is backwards. So what should we do instead? I understand every district has different needs and should definitely invest in technology that supports your students and teachers. However, there must be more coordination and integration of this local data with the more comprehensive SLDS tool as well. Students grow a lot and this fuller picture of student growth and learning is vital. Also, schools must design student data systems and strategies with clear training for parents and students to understand, and engage all stakeholders to build awareness around data tools and how they are relevant for our student’s lives. I do understand that even teachers have apprehension about data. But we have to do the hard work to empower our kids and parents to understand too. Of course, this is a pretty heavy lift, but as we see in Covid, a very necessary one. But I would be remiss if I did not say that the state also has to continue to engage local districts with how they use their platform and ways to make their platform more user-friendly to integrate with local systems as well. This is a two-way street, but meaningful data sharing to better understand our children’s needs between all stakeholders is vital to our future success. I mean if big tech has not shown us already, data is not on sheets of paper any more. It is in a big digital world now. We need to know what’s happening with our data, who has it AND how it is or CAN be used for better or worse.This is not only the essential question for big tech companies like TikTok and Facebook but also for K-12 education if we really want to be better on the other side of this pandemic.
0 Comments
Yo, this week I finally got the memo or the press release that Georgia finally joined other states in reducing the inordinate amount of standardized tests our kids take in school. Let’s pop out the confetti and the balloons for less high-stakes tests for kids in Georgia! But while I got this incredible news this week, I also was walking two disparate journeys for two of my students and coming to understand that simply removing one barrier can really mean that more will grow in its place if we are not intentional in this moment of reckoning. After months of preparing one of my recent grads for college, I got a message that said “ Ms. Nunnally, I guess I just won’t go to college now. It’s Ok.” After helping her navigate every obstacle you can think of that an orphan faces to get into college, this Zell Miller Scholar was ready to call it quits. She’d passed all the tests. She’d been acclaimed as one of the highest performers in her graduating class. But there were simply too many barriers for her alone to get into college. I mean her local school had all the programs ( she did all of them) like Dual Enrollment, College Advising, One Goal, Upward Bound, Achieve Atlanta and then some but somehow she was falling by the wayside. (This by no means is an indictment of these amazing programs that provide vital tools to our kids yet a space for exploration and deeper introspection of them collectively.) So with this text message in my phone and a lunch break coming up from my own class of students, I texted her back to get up and we were going to the campus in the middle of the “Rona”. I figured all the online communications and no one answering phones was just too much. We need someone to talk to us face to face or she would give up for good. So apparently, we were having problems with her FASFA verification and needed an IRS form to verify her information but due to the “Corona” the school created a make-shift form in its place and we did not know it. Thankfully, we went up there and she was able to enroll but we were one IRS form away from losing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Free College Education. After she was enrolled, we reflected on how simple it was once she understood the system and how to navigate it but the problem was we never really exposed her to the real “SYSTEM”. I don’t mean the one on paper, but the one with holes in it that requires constant questions, several phone calls and the runaround. Even now, we are still trying to navigate the various college platforms for her assignments because orientation was a video and not a personalized human being to help answer her questions. But this all taught me a lesson that removing high stake tests like GMAS or even the SAT is only a small chunk of the battle. We need to set up more equitable systems that are student centered and speak to their personal needs. However, on the other side of town, where my private school students have access to resources and understand these systems, I found myself asking where is the infrastructure for them to be autonomous in experiential learning environments. I had students asking to work in Fashion, NPR news and animation with Cartoon Network but these systems weren’t yet set up to even receive these bright and critical thinkers. I mean I would have to mold several emails to speak to these stakeholders only to find nothing was ready for them. And even more sad to ponder was if nothing was made for the most elite students, my other babies were not even on the radar. It made me think why doesn’t K-12 have widespread corporate internship partners like colleges and universities. We say we want kids to be prepared for the workforce but we don’t already have these systems set up for them. WHY NOT? WIth the influence of traditional colleges waning among a larger swath of Americans, we have to use this moment to speak to this new reality where K-12 is also a real and VIABLE channel for America’s workforce and economic engine. One such thought leader, Cartoon Network answered one of those long emails I sent. It was one employee from my community, but he saw this gap, not just for my private school students, but more importantly for my other public school babies as well. He understood that the time is now to begin to create more equitable systems for all and not just give lip service to what we believe should happen. So, while I am truly celebrating a tremendous milestone to break our children free from these daunting and needless tests. (And also praying they are cancelled this year due to Corona) I am also challenging more companies and thought leaders to step up and chart a new course forward for ALL our students to have opportunities. It is not enough for us to have less tests, while students still are falling in the gaps to get into college AND they are unable to learn in real-world environments to prepare for life beyond school. We preach we want all kids "College and Career Ready" but how will we know when they are there yet. We know tests don’t teach this, so it’s time for us to invest in things that do. It is now time for us to be thoughtful and intentional as we reimagine how to fill this new vacancy of possibility. What can we do instead of testing? How can we make sure our kids don’t fall in the gaps and are really ready for College? Who can we get to help us build more equitable learning spaces for ALL kids in K-12? This is the work in front of us. I am rolling up my sleeves to do this work more deeply and intentionally. I invite you to join me so we can really celebrate like never before. |
AuthorEducator, student advocate and community activists. Archives
October 2021
Categories |