Multinational testing giant Pearson has been caught spying on students’ social media accounts in a supposed effort to detect any “security breaches” that might compromise the integrity of its tests.

The company’s spying was first revealed in New Jersey when a local superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett, wrote to colleagues about a disturbing episode in which her district’s testing coordinator received a late-night call from the state education department about a student breach in test security.

The state informed the local district that Pearson is monitoring all students’ social media while they take the company’s standardized tests, Jewett wrote.

Jewett’s letter was subsequently posted to the blog of former Star-Ledger columnist Bob Braun.

New Jersey is among 12 states and the District of Columbia that have contracts with Pearson to administer the company’s Common Core tests, known as PARCC exams for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness in College and Careers. Pearson has acknowledged monitoring students’ Facebook and Twitter feeds in all the states and claims that its actions are to ensure test integrity and are part of its agreement with the consortium.

Pearson continues to monitor students’ social media accounts for references to test items, but at the request of the consortium it has ceased checking to see if implicated students are on state lists of test-takers. Instead, the company now forwards its findings from social media to state education authorities.

According to Pearson, a security breach “includes any time someone shares information about a test outside of the classroom — from casual conversations to posts on social media.”

The New York Times, March 17
The Washington Post, March 14
Bob Braun’s Ledger, March 13, 15