We have received our first legislative alert from the state PTA! Please find a long, information filled email below. (Michelle Brzycki, as Legislative Chair) ------- Its time to call your legislators tomorrow (or email them tonight! House Bill 1320 is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow and it contains information you need to act on! Indiana PTAs position on this bill is that we believe in student data security and we believe that the best way to ensure that security is for student data to be maintained in only one place. That place should be the Indiana Dept. of Education. Officials at the DOE are trained about FERPA and there has never been a gross breach of student privacy from that agency. Maintaining 2 sets of records, especially when one is handled by an untrained/novice staff, makes no sense fiscally and doubles the opportunity for data misuse. For those reasons we oppose the bill in its current form, but we wound offer our support to a version that changed all mentions of Board of Education to Department if Education. Here is really great information on this bill that just came out: Vics Statehouse Notes #167 - January 26, 2014 Dear Friends, This deserves your immediate attention and action tonight to contact members of the House Education Committee: House Bill 1320, scheduled for a hearing tomorrow (Monday, Jan. 27th) at 8:30am, would put control of a new system to expand access to student records in the hands of the State Board, not the Indiana Department of Education. For the first time, it would make the State Board an administrative agency, replacing student data functions that have always been controlled by the Indiana Department of Education. The expanded data access through this data warehouse will cost $3.7 as projected by the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, requiring an independent computer staff for the State Board with a new stand alone computer system. The duplication of services is obvious. The $3.7 million price tag is more than the current entire annual budget for the State Board of $3 million. This is a major salvo in the battle to move functions out of the Indiana Department of Education under the control of State Superintendent Ritz and into the domain of the State Board controlled by Governor Pence. Rep. Behning has scheduled House Bill 1320 for a hearing on Monday Jan. 27th at 8:30am in the House Education Committee in Room 156-C. Before that time, I hope all who believe that student data is too sensitive and too important to become a political football in the Governors power grab will contact members of the House Education Committee with a simple message: Withdraw or defeat HB 1320. Expanded Access The bill purports to improve parent access to student data and to help transfer data among schools. If that is truly a bigger priority problem in a state that has no money for teacher professional development or for preschool, lawmakers could give the $3.7 million for computer work required by this bill to the Indiana Department of Education, the current trustee of student records. This bill doesnt do that. It gives the authority and the resources to the State Board, a policy making board that now for the first time would become an administrative agency with complete control over student records. This would be a monumental shift in authority and makes the bill a power grab to boost the control of the State Board over the IDOE. This would be the first time that the Indiana General Assembly has assigned an administrative function to the State Board. The State Board is authorized by law as a policy board. It is hard to believe that the General Assembly really wants to make the State Board an administrative agency as well, setting up total confusion about the administrative roles of IDOE in relation to the State Board. The Risk of HB1320 In this proposed bill, Rep. Behning and the Governor are playing with fire. If the parents and teachers of Indianas students come to believe for one minute that student test data are being used as a wedge in a political dispute between Governor Pence and State Superintendent Ritz, the trust built up over two decades that student data is being handled impartially and appropriately could vanish overnight. If parents sense that the data of their students are being used for political purposes, they may well demand that any test results be given only to them and for use by their local school, and not for state use. Such a step would collapse the entire accountability movement that this General Assembly has slowly built since the A+ program of 1987. There must be no hint of political maneuvering related to student test data. This bill has politics written all over it and must be turned down by this committee. There is no reason to involve any agency other than the Indiana Department of Education in student records. IDOEs work in handling student data has been accurate and above reproach. Any claim to the contrary has been made for political purposes to support a takeover of data by the Center for Education and Career Innovation, to further undermine the authority of Superintendent Ritz. This bill puts at risk the faith and trust of parents in state authorities that has taken years to establish. The Development of Parent Trust in State Records I am old enough to remember well a time when Indiana did not have a state test. When I began my career in Indiana in the 1960s, all testing was local testing, and local parents and teachers could assess the progress of their students. There was great mistrust in that era that state test results kept in the Statehouse might be used inappropriately by people that did not have local ties and might not have the best interests of the students in mind. It took years of patient reassurance that the privacy and sanctity of state test scores would be maintained. State tests were introduced in the mid-1980s and student ID numbers allowing the state to track individual students by number were introduced around 2002, based on the availability of high speed computers. Approval of that step required tremendous trust on the part of parents. This bill could put that trust in jeopardy overnight. Why does anyone other than IDOE need to supervise student data? They dont. I have observed over many years that the Indiana Department of Education takes very seriously the trust that is placed in them to maintain the accuracy and the privacy of student data. Please contact members of the House Education Committee and other House members as soon as possible. Of course, if you read this after tomorrows hearing, it would still help if they know of your opposition to HB 1320 in the days ahead. Student data must not be made part of a political tug-of-war, but this bill does that. HB 1320 is unwise public policy and should be withdrawn or defeated. Let legislators know how you feel about it. Thank you for your advocacy for wise policies and strong public education! Best wishes, Vic Smith vic790@aol Dont know who you Legislator is or how to contact them? Check out this link: district.iga.in.gov/DistrictLookup
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 01:31:48 +0000
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