Should Parents be the Target Group for Polar Bracelets? Forget the Students, It's the Parents who Need to be Tracked.

Keep your eyes looking southward for educational reforms heading Missouri's way.  Many of the reforms being instituted in Florida are being brought up via bills in our legislature such as the expansion of charter schools, virtual schools, tax credits, etc.  

Will Missouri see a parental bill here that is being introduced in Florida grading parental accountability for their children in public schools?  Here's a recap of Florida HB543 relating to parental involvement and accountability in public schools:

HB 543: Parental Involvement and Accountability in the Public Schools

 GENERAL BILL by Stargel; (CO-INTRODUCER) Hager

Parental Involvement and Accountability in the Public Schools; Specifies purpose to provide information & tools to parents of preK-5 students & to set minimum standards for parental involvement; specifies causes for student underachievement; requires prek-5 teachers to evaluate parental involvement & send evaluation to parents under certain circumstances; requires dispute process; requires certain reporting. 

Here's a bit of history on this bill from a Florida educational activist who has been following Florida education for the last several years:

This bill was introduced last session and failed. The bill requires schools to provide a handbook, get a signature and receipt, issue grades on parents quarterly, and report the "evaluation data" to the FL DOE. The data will also go to the Governor and legislature.

The legislative analysis indicates that the cost impact on schools is "indeterminate." It states there will be costs to publish the handbook, grade, and collect/report data.

The legislative analysis says the "evaluation data" will become a part of the student's permanent record and be confidential following FERPA guidelines.

So now parents (move over, teachers) are held accountable via data for student achievement or lack thereof?  Parents who are utilizing a public service to benefit their children would now be mandated to participate in an accountability exercise themselves.   The data will be entered into the child's record and promised confidentiality even as these records are shared with various federal agencies and private research entities.

On its face, it sounds fabulous!  Get those parents involved!  Get them to CARE about their child's education.  Get parents to care by mandating parental behavior.  

Do you see the fallacy in that last sentence?  The government or anyone cannot mandate CARING for any human being.  Either a parent is going to be a committed parent, or not.  And whose definition of caring is the legislature going to ascribe to? 

• By signing forms?  
• By showing up to conferences?  
• By requiring reading to children at home?  
• By feeding them the right foods determined by the government?
• By volunteering in the schools? 
• By agreeing with all the teachings from the school, including a national sex ed curriculum? 

The bill is vague in setting specifications. This wording is particularly intriguing... specifies causes for student underachievement.  In theory, a kindergarten teacher can determine why a child is failing, and it may not be because of faulty teaching, or curriculum or that the school is not fulfilling the needs of the child; it could quite possibly be because the parents are not deemed to be appropriate for the child's achievement by the kindergarten teacher.

If this bill in Florida passes, not only will a public school have the access to you and your child's personal data to share with various federal agencies and private organizations without your active permission, you, as a parent will have to "pass the test" crafted by the state to determine if you are a "good" parent or a "bad" parent.


Watch for this bill to be introduced at some point in Missouri.  California and Alaska have laws fining parents if children are in gangs or have excessive absences.  There is a bill pending in South Carolina requiring parents to volunteer in their school.

Maybe the states and districts will jump on the bandwagon for the Polar monitors after all for the parents to wear. It would help if the polar bracelet had a webcam on it so you document what the parents are doing at home to ensure a child's success.  Think of it as reality television.  Now the school can document what a parent is providing the child...or not providing the child.  That could be rather subjective, right?  It is correct that much of the problem starts in the home, but there are other issues, like providing intact families....but the government can't mandate that either...yet. 

 

When Did Physical Education Become An Issue of Social Justice? Do School Districts Using Polar Bracelets Understand the Goals of Producing Fit Workers for the System?

The Suburban Journal  wrote about Polar bracelets in use at the Parkway School District (suburban St. Louis area) and questioning privacy issues involved in wearing them not only in PE classes, but also about the plan to have the students wear them 24/7 for one week and tracking activity from home.  We followed up on the story and included the video from the School Board meeting in December where the district representative said to the Board members:

We don't want to just assess fitness we want to assess behavioral change w/regard to physical activity patterns with our students and then we know we've done our job and this tool here will help us do that.


Other news services and bloggers wrote about Polar bracelets and their use became more widely known and researched.  As we wrote in the previous posting about the Polar bracelets, we wondered where the line was drawn between better health and surveillance.  Subsequent articles by the Revered Review included information about Polar's ability and data sets available to track health of students, including information about sexual history, diabetes and drug use. 


In one Iowa school district, apparently the use of data gathered from Polar bracelets echoes what the parkway District representative said in the Board meeting, except this behavioral change is not restricted to just Parkway or Iowa students, it is directed to all children on a global scale. As a result of a global forum held in Grundy and subsequent statement from the forum, schools should be:

“establishing physical education and health programs as models of social justice which foster a safe learning environment, promote the joyful participation of physical activity with appreciation of cultural, racial, ethnic and social and economic differences.”

So now physical education is to be looked upon as data driven and leveling the playing field (no pun intended) in terms of cultural, racial ethnic, social and economic differences.  The Revered Review ("TRR Investigates, Part 2: Rural Iowa-A Decade of Polar Monitor Use") has an excellent article on what it found in Grundy, Iowa and the research provided from its students for the last several years on a global scale:

The Grundy Center School District, located in the American Heartland, has 700 students who have been using Polar monitors for a decade. The small town of Grundy, Iowa, is where 2,700 residents call home and the county of Grundy has a total population of 12,500—a small rural community by any measurement.

However, its school district is on the leading edge of technology: All students have school-issued laptops, and its physical education department has used Polar monitors for years. In fact, Grundy is where Polar Electro researched its monitors in a school setting, according to Superintendent Cassandra Murra.

School Garners International Attention

This small school district has even garnered both national and international attention. Politicians and delegates from around the world have visited the school, many looking to the school as a possible role model for physical education, using the monitors, and the fight against childhood obesity........

Read more here from the Revered Review on the decade long use of Polar bracelets and how this research has attracted international attention and visits from researchers and educators.


Parkway School District agreed to pull the bracelets from their programs due to privacy concerns.  If the Parkway District or other school districts institute the Polar bracelet in the future, they might want to review the Grundy Iowa school district's use of data.  It has been used not only for individuals to track their physical progress, but its ultimate use points to providing data to achieve social justice via physical education programs. 


Is this the main reason for this increased use of technology in PE classes and the tracking of data on students?  From a 1998 paper, Social Justice in Education in 'new times', delivered to the Australian Association for Research in Education:

What we see within schools is that most of what is done is drawn into the production of the 'flexible' worker. Parent participation is seen as good, not in relation to the happiness of the child but for the way it can improve a child's performance in school. Social skills are taught so the child will become a better worker. Physical Education is important as it will produce a fitter healthier worker. In such a curriculum all areas of school life are attuned to the 'production' of a 'flexible' worker who can stake a claim for the individual or corporation in the market place.


Parkway District may have just dodged a bullet in terms of providing sensitive physical information of their children to unknown research organizations in the quest for social justice.  When the Parkway District employee was explaining to the School Board about tracking students and effecting behavioral changes, did he know that these behavioral changes were to "produce a fitter, healthier worker"?  Did he think or know that most of what is done in schools is for the "production of the 'flexible' worker"?

Here are some agencies in Missouri for the years 2002-2010 receiving funding for physical education outreach from the Carol M. White Physical Education Fund via the Department of Education.  However, you might want to check with your district if it purchased (as my district did) Polar bracelets with funding from its regular budget:

2010:

About Our Kinds, Inc. (MO) – $750,000
Serving 1, 205 rural, high-need students, the mission of this project is to wrap students in a blanket of wellness strategies by integrating physical activity into a child’s day at school and in the community. WAVE’s philosophy is that physical education and activity is not just an event or a class that you attend but a cardinal part of a healthy, happy life. This approach not only assigns value to engaging in regular physical activity but also challenges students to “Catch the WAVE.” WAVE is designed to expand and improve PE programming to make progress toward meeting State PE standards by providing (1) equipment and support to enable students to participate actively in PE and physical activity and (2) funds for professional development. The collaboration joins a community-based organization, About Our Kinds( AOK), Inc with three schools, two local governments and nine community groups. AOK is an experienced federal grantee. Under this leadership, staff and coordination is in place.


Chilhowee R-IV School District (MO) - $202,561
The Commit to be Fit program will help the district and rural community develop a fitness-oriented PE programs for K-12 that meets PE state standards and improves the instructional skills of PE teachers, Specialists, classroom teachers and after-school program staff.  Additionally, this program will implement nutrition components of the Comprehensive School Health Plan and Wellness Policy to promote health eating habits and good nutrition.  Through the Commit to be Fit program, the district will integrate outdoor activities into the PE program that motivate students to increase the number of hours that they spend in physical activity out of school.

The schools listed below are previous PEP winners and the entire list including other states may be found here.

2009: 

MISSOURI

Q215F090560
Wentzville R-IV School District
P.O. Box 311
Wentzville, MO 63385
Contact: Gregg Klinginsmith

$484,105

2007:

MISSOURI

Q215F070072

Kansas City # 33                                                                              $459,868

1211 McGee Street

Kansas City, Missouri  64106

Contact:  Nancy Bailey

(816) 418-1272

Q215F070108

Ferguson-Florissant School District                                             $283,086

1005 Waterford Drive

Florissant, Missouri  63033

Contact:  Laura Beckmann

(314) 506-9052

2006:

St. Louis--Support a Child International  (no amount provided)

2005:

Young Women's Christian Association-St. Louis
Webb City R-7 Schools-Webb City
Dunklin R-5 School District-Herculanuem

(no amounts provided)


2004:

Excelsior Springs School District #40-Excelsior Springs
Cornerstones of Care-Kansas City
Maternal and Child health Coalition-Kansas City
Lamar Community Betterment-Lamar
Twin pike Family YMCA-Louisiana
Ozark R-VI School Distirct-Ozark
Pierce City R-VI School District-Pierce City

(no amounts provided)


2003:


Kansas City-Kansas City #33
Sullivan-Sullivan Public Schools
St Louis-St Louis Public Schools
St Joseph-St Joseph School District
Lamar-Lamar Community Betterment


(no amounts provided)

Polar Monitors Used to Track Student Depression, Suicide, Cancer, Alcohol/Drug Use, Sexual Activity? Public Student Data Stored on polargofit.com website

Polar Monitors may not only measure and provided data to schools about physical activity and heart rates in PE classes, there may also be assessments relating to student suicide, depression, cancer and diabetes risk.  It can even track student sexual activity, drug and alcohol use.  The company states this these invasive assessments are only suggested for those students 18 years or older, but is this the type of information that should be gathered by educational institutions on students of any age?  

The circumvention of FERPA law will allow this information to be disseminated on your student to various federal agencies and private companies.  The article contains a nifty link so you can see how this information will be gathered and how with the click of a mouse, broadcast to the cloud(s).


You can also read how school districts are funding these expensive monitors while cutting teachers and support staff.  We'll be writing more about this in the future and provide links so you can determine if your school district is signing onto this program providing your student's data and personal information to entities, probably without your knowledge or active permission.

This is from "Is the Privacy of the American Student at Risk" at The Revered Review:

 ***********************************************

School:  A place where children learn to read and write. A place where they learn mathematics, science and history. Moreover, a place, away from home, where children are supposed to be safe.

Yet now it’s a place, across the country, where children’s hearts are being monitored, their activities are being tracked, and it’s being determined if students are obese or overweight. In addition, health risk assessments are being made on students and the information can be stored or saved as a PDF file.

In this physical education class, students are training using spin bicycles. However, in many schools, students are using Polar monitors in physical education classes. (Photo Credit: MJMonty)

Some students across the country, including in many small towns—are now wearing heart rate monitors and activity monitors—sometimes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—as part of their schools’ phys ed programs. The New York Post reported that three schools were using these monitors and some, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and parents, questioned the possible intrusion into students’ privacy.

(Link here to continue reading the rest of the article from Revered Review)