Dakota Beacon

Maine Gov. Paul LePage signed a bill last week that requires the state to leave Smarter Balanced, the testing consortium that provided the common-core aligned assessments state students took this past spring.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2015/06/maine_leaves_common-core_test_consortium.html

But the explicit heading of the announcement of the Governor’s signing of the law is highly significant – "TO PROTECT STUDENT PRIVACY – NO COLLECTION OF PERSONAL STUDENT DATA"!

From the bill endorsement announcement:

An Act To Improve Educational Assessments of Maine Students Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: Sec. 1.

Department of Education to adopt educational assessment that does not collect personal student data.

On the effective date of this section, the Department of Education shall terminate the State's membership in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the use of the Smarter Balanced Assessment used to assess student achievement in the 2014-2015 school year. The department shall adopt a method of educational assessment pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 6202 for the 2015-2016 school year and each school year thereafter that complies with federal law but does not collect or disseminate personal data and attributes of students, such as attitudes, values, motivations, stereotypes and feelings. The method of assessment must be selected with direct input from education stakeholders and must specifically address the needs of students and citizens of the State.

http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0872&item=5&snum=127