Privately funded CT RISE program raises a number of key issues in public education

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The CT RISE program interacts with a number of key issues in public education, including: how we define, quantify, and measure student learning; teacher autonomy; teacher morale; student data privacy; and the role of philanthropists and other external and private interests in our public schools.

This report takes CT RISE as a concrete and revealing case study. NHPS (New Haven Public Schools) Advocates are volunteers, who do not have access to all the potentially relevant information and have not undertaken exhaustive research. Accordingly, this report is “preliminary” in that it summarizes emerging findings, based on the available information. It does not supply a comprehensive overview, but is aimed at contributing to ongoing discussion.

The CT RISE program—currently being piloted at high schools in New Haven (Career), Meriden, Hartford, and East Hartford—is under consideration for expansion in NHPS. The core of the CT RISE program is a “data dashboard” that collates data such as grades, test scores, attendance  data,course credits, and behaviors. The program provides a number of potential benefits, including streamlined access to student data and added supports for students and teachers. NHPS Advocates also note concerns in the following areas:

1. Instruction : There is no compelling evidence that the CT RISE program improves student learning. At the same time, its dashboard may bring unintended consequences, such as distracting from teaching and learning, prioritizing engagement with data profiles rather than human connections, steering teachers’ attention toward discrete data points and away from holistic development, and focusing excessive energieson narrow and/or standardized metrics.

2. Governance : Though it provides data in a useful collated format, the CT RISE dashboard essentially duplicates existing NHPS services. The RISE program also operates without oversight structures thatincorporate key participants, such as students and families. It appears that no party provided the required parental notification of student participation, or appropriate opt-out forms, an omission that violates RISE’s Memorandum of Understanding with NHPS and the CT Student Data Privacy Law.

3. Data Privacy : NHPS’ partnership with CT RISE increases the use of surveillance technologies in
communities of color, with data profiles possibly following students beyond their current school sites and foreclosing future opportunities. It also potentially enables corporate experimentation with student data.

4. Fundraising Practices: CT RISE’s use of Wishbone fundraising reveals an exploitative model. Wishbone requires that students raise a non-refundable $99 deposit in order to participate in fundraising. Partial funding for projects that fail to meet their fundraising goal are redirected to other students, not to donors.

5. Connections : CT RISE is funded and operated by individuals and organizations with demonstrated interest in the privatization of public education. CT RISE is funded by the Dalio Foundation and is a spin-off organization from New Visions for Public Schools, a charter management organization. Both organizations have advanced the outsourcing and private management of public services.

In sum, the existing partnership between NHPS and CT RISE potentially erects barriers to student learning; operates without inclusive governance structures; raises concerns about data privacy; promotes an exploitativefundraising model; and strengthens ties with special interests working to privatize public education.

Thus NHPS Advocates urges a restructuring of the relationship — one that ensures school leadership and educators are in control of student learning; centers students, rather than a data dashboard; creates transparent, inclusive structures to govern the program; guarantees data privacy; ends any exploitative practices; communicates an opt-out option to families; and offers teachers the option to opt-out without penalty. NHPS Advocates also call for the district to re-evaluate this and all data agreements in light of the information in this document and to verify compliance with the CT Student Data Law.