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With two whole weeks left to spare in 2011 (procrastinate much?), Congress finally finished its deliberations on the FY12 budget. The nearly one trillion dollar appropriations bill is now making its way to the President for his signature. While the maximum Pell grant was maintained, it’s hard to see the continual whittling away of benefits as a victory for students (see Steve Burd’s take on the “thoughtless” approach here). There was, however, a quiet and significant victory for students in the final bill. As previously noted on the Quick and the Ed and in the National Review, a stealth attack in the appropriations process sought to undermine federal investments in Open Education Resources (OER). A look at the final language reveals that the counter attack was successful. While it may be tempting to breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to a new year free from worry, another danger is lurking—one that could be much more harmful to the Open Education Resources movement and the students they serve—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
At first blush, SOPA doesn’t seem to have much to do with education. It seems like a classic fight between Hollywood and Silicon Valley over copyright protection and innovation. Unfortunately, OER might get caught in the crossfire. To get to the heart of the issue, we need go back to another Hollywood and Silicon Valley face-off.
In the mid and late 90s, technology made it easier to digitize — and illegally share — music. Battles raged between the music industry, concerned about copyright infringement, and the software/online industries, looking to innovate and expand their own market share. From this battle came a compromise intended to balance both sides’ concerns: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Wired calls DMCA “the law that saved the web,” in large part because of its “notice and takedown” provision, which provides protection for websites that inadvertently host materials belonging to someone else—provided the website takes it down when told about the infringement. This approach protects both the owner of the material and the site that hosts it—and has allowed sites like Google and YouTube to thrive. Unfortunately, SOPA would create a new set of enforcement provisions that would undo notice and takedown, allowing copyright holders to go directly to a judge to shut down the websites. The threat of court action could prove fatal to OER.
As students, schools, institutions, and governments grapple with quality and cost in education, OER is being looked to as a key part of a solution. MIT just announced plans to offer credentials for its OER courses and Washington State just launched 43 open community college courses. How likely are these institutions to keep investing in and hosting OER if they are constantly besieged by lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits? Here’s what Google’s director of public policy had to say about SOPA’s effect on You Tube
YouTube would just go dark immediately. It couldn’t function.
If the profit-oriented, highly-capitalized, and overly-lawyered folks at Google and YouTube think the risks of SOPA are too high, what do you think folks in Washington State will think? And do?
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5/11/2012 | U.S. News & World Report highlights ideas from "Moving On Up: How Tuition Tax Breaks Increasingly Favor the Upper-Middle Class." 
5/11/2012 | In Diverse, Steve Burd comments on the Obama administration's plans to address student debt. 
5/11/2012 | Kevin Carey talks to Salon about the government's role in rising student debt.
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Thus far, I have documented my personal feelings regarding the No Child Left Behind legislation. As of the last week in September of 2011, the act will most certainly be revised during Obama’s administration. Thus far, Arne Duncan the secretary of the Department of Education has revealed that some of the provisions in the act will be either be waived or substantially changed. The major provision that all children be proficient in math and reading by 2014 will most definitely be scrapped from the legislation. In return for the waiver, the Obama administration is expected to attach teacher performance to students test scores and create the expectation that charter school are to be expanded within each state. Obama and Arne Duncan have also stated publicly that each state would be given more flexibility regarding testing controls and standards.
I agree with the fact that states should have more control. I states previously that I think it is unconstitutional for the federal government to intervene in the affairs of education. However, I still have a major issue with linking teacher evaluations and performance based on student test scores and student data. As an educator, I have a fundamental disagreement with attaching teacher performance to student data and testing scores. I can attest for the record that teachers try their best each and every day. Educators have to work with the students that they are given. It is our hope that all students come to school every day willing to work hard and to learn. However, there are just too many variables that educators cannot control that undermine the process. I think that some common sense has to be applied to in this situation.
The overall consensus is that that requiring all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014 has resulted in unnecessary pressure being put upon educators and administration. The pressure has resulted in cheating scandals that occurred in the states of Georgia and Connecticut.
A widespread scandal within the educational community ensued when the Governor’s office of student achievement investigated the abnormal number of erasures on student answer sheets. As a result of this investigation, principals, teachers and other department officials were implicated in the scandal. As a result these public officials and educational staff were either forced to resign or were fired if they weren’t willing to resign officially.
Another cheating scandal erupted in Waterbury Connecticut at Hopeville School. An administrator and a teacher were implicated in the tampering of elementary test scores. The Connecticut Mastery tests were subject to tampering in an effort to raise test scores as well. A state investigation found irregularities in the school’s scores on the State Mastery Tests, there were major improvements, and in some cases, scoring top in Connecticut.
If student data and test scores are still going to be the focus of the No Child Left Behind revision, then more scandals could be a very real possibility in the future. I think it is folly to continue to place undue pressure on teachers and administration. This is the very core essence of the bill that needs revision! I just cannot comprehend why this key issue hasn’t been understood by Mr. Duncan or President Obama.
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