A former Mississippi Department of Education employee uses public school students’ test data as part of a private service he sells to school districts for thousands of dollars.
A law called the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) generally prevents an education agency or institution from sharing student records, or personally identifiable information in these records without the written consent of a parent. FERPA violations can result in loss of federal funds.
Mississippi schools are now rated on an “A-F” scale. Schools were previously rated on a seven-label scale beginning with “High Performing” and ending with “Failing.” These ratings are determined via an “accountability model,” a system of complex computations that traditionally assessed three categories: student achievement, growth, and high school graduation.
People not intimately involved in deriving the student data or making the calculations cannot understand the accountability model and how the schools are rated due to the complexity of the evaluation process.
Interdepartmental emails reveal former Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) employee Russ Davis worked on the accountability model as recently as 2011. He owns Blue Consulting Group, which offers a web-based service – AccountabilityAnalyzer.com -- that assists school administrators in understanding their students’ test data and identifying where improvements can be made.
Davis’ website provides quotes from three school districts – DeSoto County, Biloxi, and Choctaw County – endorsing the service and boasts that Accountability Analyzer is “now trusted by 1 in 2 school districts.”
Davis told Bigger Pie Forum the service sells for “less than $5,000” annually and that the product is sold directly to school districts. Mississippi has more than 150 school districts.
Davis said he gets student testing data from the school districts, with which he signs confidentiality agreements: "We don't actually directly grab that information. The schools get that information. They put it into our software. ... We actually have a FERPA data sharing agreement that is signed with each district that allows the analyzation of those results. ... We are very conscious of FERPA. We deal with it every single day."
Bigger Pie Forum has requested copies of data sharing agreements between Blue Consulting Group and school districts.
Although FERPA generally prevents schools from sharing personally identifiable student data -- like names, social security numbers, test scores, learning disabilities and school attendance records -- without written parental consent, there are some exceptions. In addition to cases including health and safety emergencies, court order compliance, and accrediting agency requests, consent can also be waived for "school officials with legitimate educational interest" in a student records.
The U.S. Department of Education will allow private companies selling educational products or services to fall under the "school officials" exception, as long as the company only uses the student data for purposes spelled out in a contract with the school. (See "K-12 student database jazzes tech startups, spooks parents," Reuters, March 3, 2013.)
FERPA violations can result in loss of federal funds. In fiscal year 2011, Mississippi received more than $185 million -- with the Jackson Public Schools alone receiving $17 million -- in federal funds called Title I, which are for low-income students. (Click here to see Title 1 funds by district.)
MDE e-mails regarding student data
A school administrator from the Louisville Municipal School District told Bigger Pie Forum that students’ test data comes with their subscription to Accountability Analyzer and that Blue Consulting Group gets the data from the state.
Principal James Brooks of Eiland Middle School, which is within the Louisville district, told Bigger Pie Forum his school has used Accountability Analyzer for a "couple years." Brooks described the benefits of Accountability Analyzer:
“Probably the easiest thing it does is it gives you a graphical representation of your school. They have a graph that looks similar to a gauge, and it shows you how your growth factors have progressed or decreased. They give you several years of data. Also, it can tell you which classes meet growth and which don’t.”
When asked to confirm whether school data had to be entered into the system or was provided to the school by Accountability Analyzer, Brooks said:
“They gave it to us. They get it from the state department.”
MDE e-mails provided to Bigger Pie Forum show that Brooks wrote to MDE more than a year ago asking whether Accountability Analyzer was a state product. He received “no” for an answer in an e-mail from then-state employee, Ken Thompson – director of the Office of Research and Statistics -- who denied knowledge of the product and then sent an e-mail to Davis informing him of the conversation with Brooks.
On Aug. 25, 2011 at 2:18 p.m. Brooks wrote in an e-mail to Thompson:
“I am James Brooks, the Principal of Eiland Middle School of Louisville Municipal School District. I have been perplexed by our Algebra I results on the Accountability Analyser (sic). It says we had 8 out of 10 students that did not meet growth. This appears to be either a mistake or an injustice. I am inclosing (sic) the results. Please help me understand this process.”
At 2:49 p.m., Thompson replied:
“The Accountability Analyzer is not a product of the Department of Education. You’ll need to contact the company that sold it to you. I’m not familiar with the product.”
A 2:53-p.m. e-mail from Thompson to Davis shows that Thompson did have knowledge of Accountability Analyzer and Davis' knowledge of the product:
“Your peeps are needing you. I refrained from agreeing with (Brooks) that if 8 of his 10 students didn’t meet growth it is an injustice; just not the injustice he was insinuating.”
At 2:56 p.m. Davis replied to Thompson, saying he would follow up with Brooks:
“He’s on my call sheet. I’m glad he ‘inclosed’ the results. Also, it’s Analyzer. Geez.”
Additional e-mails show that Davis was given access by Thompson to state computer files that contained student data for the entire Mississippi public school system.
A July 28, 2011 e-mail chain between Davis and Thompson shows that Thompson helped Davis gain access to SAS, or Statistical Analysis Software, files. This software is used exclusively by MDE’s Accountability Office and contains student data for the entire Mississippi public school system.
Referenced in the e-mail chain is “Steve,” who is Steve Hebbler, a former Office of Research and Statistics employee who is still under contract with MDE for work regarding the accountability model.
Thompson is now marketing himself as a consultant to school districts, offering services detailed at www.kenandassociates.com.
This post is provided by Bigger Pie Forum. Bigger Pie Forum purchased distribution rights on Jackson Jambalaya.
This post is provided by Bigger Pie Forum. Bigger Pie Forum purchased distribution rights on Jackson Jambalaya.
13 comments:
The real crime here is the fact that James Brooks, middle school principal, cant spell 'analyzer' or 'enclosing' correctly. Apparently the problem starts at the top.
Steve Hebbler was a brilliant statistician and a one man show up in research and statistics. Not wanting to be left out, that office grew from two competent people doing their own research to 4-5 people that knew absolutely nothing about the data and what to do with it. Everybody in that office became an instant "manager-level" employee. Forget the fact that almost all of the reports they were passing off as theirs came directly from the staff of the MIS department.
Thick as thieves would be the most appropriate term for Russ and Ken. They collectively gamed the system, and apparently are continuing to do so.
How pathetic.
This story, although accurate in every respect, is only the bare, minimal tip of the iceberg at the State Department regarding current and former employees. The place is devoid of ethics, absent principles of originality, unfamiliar with positive outcomes, thick with plagiarism, fraught with personal gain objectives and a cesspool of corruption. Otherwise, as a department, it's pretty much useless.
Also worth noting, the Office of "Research and Statistics" was completely wiped-out after the previous Superintendent did some MUCH needed administrative cleansing. There are probably plenty of areas that could still use a good cleansing.
My wife is a teacher in a Title I school district in Madison County (did you figure out which school district?). The funny thing is we regularly joke about several of the administrators/principals who are referred to as Dr. So And So (JSU PhD) that can not spell or use proper grammar. It is rare for her to get a written correspondence that is not riddled with misspellings. These are the people that are leading the teachers to educate children and we wonder why school districts are failing... How can someone who can't spell or write teach a child without teaching them wrong? Moreover, how can they get a PhD without knowing basic grammar? Only in Mississippi...
The MDE is probably the best argument for charter schools -- and I am lukewarm on charter schools at best.
Take most any school district in this state run by incompetent democrats and multiply the behavior and incompetence by two hundred and you have the State Department of Education. Malfeasance, misfeasance and non-feasance.
Might want to check into the newly formed School Status LLC, with the same director and Hattiesburg P.O. Box address as Blue Consulting Group LLC.
https://business.sos.state.ms.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?583451
"A R Davis
PO BOX 18938
HATTIESBURG MS 39404
Member"
The website for School Status is http://www.schoolstatus.com
A USPTO trademark application has been filed for "SchoolStatus" by Blue Consulting Group LLC for two different uses as follows
Word Mark: SCHOOLSTATUS
G & S: Computer application software for Internet-connected devices, namely, software for the holistic review, tracking and analysis of student data
G & S: Providing statistical information
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:7iprpr.2.1
A Linkedin listing shows someone claiming to be employed by both Blue Consulting Group and SchoolStatus (both in Hattiesburg MS).
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshdeere
Josh Deere's Experience
Lead Engineer
Blue Consulting Group
July 2012 – Present (10 months) Hattiesburg, Mississippi Area
Lead Engineer
SchoolStatus
Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Education Management industry
July 2012 – Present (10 months) Hattiesburg, Mississippi Area
Changing education, forever.
Nancy "DirectorLobbyistDirectorLobbyist" Loome, David "I Luv St. Andrew's" Blount and Cecil "My Favorite Martian" Brown are all smiling.
Which entity reports the education data to the Workforce Investment Board's longitudinal data system? Where does nSPARC fit in the picture?
I'd like to see that group-photo, 6:39. There is no photo in existence showing Cecil smiling. You were kidding, right?
April 17, 2013 at 10:15 a.m.:
Please feel free to send copies of any memos, letters and poorly written e-mails from Madison County or any other school districts to contact@biggerpieforum.org.
12:32; What would be the point of that exercise in stamp-wastage?
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