Cuomo panel: State should cut ties with inBloom

ALBANY – New York should end its relationship with a nonprofit group creating a statewide education database, according to a report Monday from a panel created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Cuomo-appointed panel, which was tasked in February to come up with ways to fix the state's implementation of the Common Core, issued a series of recommendations late Monday, one day before the state Legislature is scheduled to vote on whether to retain four members of the Education Department's Board of Regents.

Among the recommendations were to sever the state's relationship with inBloom Inc., the Atlanta-based, Gates Foundation-backed nonprofit working with the Education Department to create a statewide database of identifiable student information, including names, addresses and grades. The database has drawn the ire of many parents, teachers and lawmakers, who have expressed concerns about privacy and the potential for security breaches.

The 11-member panel, which included two state lawmakers, also said the state should keep Common Core-based tests in grades 3-8 from appearing on a student's transcript, while capping the amount of instructional time that can be spent on standardized tests.

"The debate about this one provider has become a distraction to the successful implementation of the Common Core," the report said of inBloom. "The state's relationship with inBloom should be halted, and state leaders should consider alternative paths to accomplish the goals of increased data transparency and analytics."

Cuomo announced he would create the panel in January amid widespread criticism of the state's implementation of the Common Core, a set of more-rigorous learning standards for grades K-12 being implemented in more than 40 states. It was chaired by Stanley Litow, IBM's vice president of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs.

The state Board of Regents already took some steps to delay the implementation last month, making this year's fourth-grade class the first to have to pass Common Core-aligned Regents exams to pass. This year's ninth-grade class had previously been first in line.

The panel's recommendations mirror some of those taken up by the Board of Regents last month, including the graduation requirement delay and a ban on standardized testing in kindergarten, first and second grades.

The report came less than a week after the state Assembly passed a bill that would take some of the steps recommended by Cuomo's panel, including keeping elementary and middle-school exams off of permanent records.

But the Assembly bill, which has not picked up a Senate sponsor, only recommended delaying the inBloom database to 2015. It also includes a two-year pause on using Common Core-based tests as part of teacher evaluations, a move that is opposed by Cuomo.

A spokesman for the state Education Department declined comment Monday, while a spokesman for inBloom could not immediately be reached.

At an Assembly hearing last month, an inBloom board member said the student data would be kept safe and would only be accessible to those given access by the Education Department.

"Information about New York state students loaded into inBloom is unreadable to inBloom as stored and is deleted when the student graduates or our contract is terminated, whichever comes first," said Peggy Brookins, the board member.

In a statement provided by the governor's office, Ali Jackson-Jolley, a parent from Westchester who served on the panel, said she believes "these recommendations will outline a path forward to making important reforms to how Common Core is implemented in New York."

"It is time to take a new approach to the Common Core," said Jackson-Jolley, of Croton Falls.