Clarkstown May Opt Out Of Race To The Top

The Clarkstown School District may be opting out of The Race to the Top initiative. Superintendent Dr. J. Thomas Morton said Wednesday he will recommend at the next school board meeting that the district pull out of the program because of the absence of definitive information about the security of student data. 

Participation in the program was debated at the school board’s last meeting when the district administration recommended staying in it. But since then Dr. Morton
said continued efforts to get more information from the state education department have been unsuccessful. He addressed those concerns in a letter sent to parents and guardians on Tuesday.

“I don’t believe what is going on now is thought out or secure enough,” he said, in a reference to the plan for student data to be transferred from the state’s EngageNY portal to a private company, inBloom.

“There just seem to be too many questions,” he said. “There are too many unanswered risks.” 

Dr. Morton said he has heard opposition from district parents some who have extensively researched the federally funded program and others who simply do not want their children’s data distributed beyond the educational system.

One of the unanswered questions posed to the education department was, “What is the potential to share this information with private vendors or other folks?”

He acknowledged there needs to be some type of data dashboard so school districts can compare their programs and outcomes to other districts. If the school board agrees with Dr. Morton on Thursday, Dec. 12, the district may forego the $18,000 it received to fund the program.

The Pearl River and South Orangtown school districts have already pulled out from The Race To The Top along with numerous districts in Westchester County and elsewhere in the state. 

The text of Dr. Morton’s letter is provided below.

November 26, 2013

Dear Parents, 

As most of you know, there has been a contentious debate in New York State regarding student data.  The NYS Education Department (NYSED) has contracted with a private company to house all student data.  The company’s name is inBloom.  NYSED has also secured the services of additional companies for the purpose of accessing this student data.  These companies provide data dashboards which are the tools used to view student data and to compare that data with student information from across the state.  That information is proposed to be shared with parents, teachers and administrators to make school systems better and more accountable.

While that goal is laudable and makes good sense educationally, the introduction of a third party vendor having total access to student data leaves many questions unresolved.  As an educator in the state of NY, I have been trying to determine why a potentially good idea can become such a source of upset and rancor.   The issue that has caused such furor is the inability to guarantee that our student data will be safe.  We have been in contact with officials from both NY State and inBloom in an attempt to have questions regarding student privacy answered.  We have also resisted the temptation of joining a movement just because “everyone else” has done so. 

Instead, we have carefully asked direct questions from these authorities.  Rather than receiving direct responses, we have only been given vague or contradictory answers to fairly straight-forward queries.  At this point in time, there are simply too many unanswered questions.  As a result, I believe the only responsible course of action is to make a recommendation to the Clarkstown Board of Education that they should opt out of the Race to the Top grant at the December 12 board meeting.  By taking this action our student data will not be accessed through the data dashboards, and our student’s privacy of information will be protected to the best of our ability.   

There are other consequences of this action.  The district will have to return approximately $18,000 in grant funds that were not expended.  Clarkstown will not have access to state aggregated data.  Clarkstown will still be required to provide any requested data to NYSED.  All other obligations related to testing and teaching the Common Core Standards must be met.  However, I feel that our students’ privacy rights are much more important than any of these issues, and that is why this action is being taken.

I thought it was important to let you know this information.  Additionally, I would like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Sincerely,

Dr. J. Thomas Morton

Superintendent of Schools

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