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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Student Privacy Issues - No to inBloom

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Student Privacy Issues - No to inBloom:

Student Privacy Issues - No to inBloom

This article  from Reuters really does a good job of explaining the issues around student data and privacy.  (I had seen this but a reader also alerted me to it; thanks).

I keep getting asked, "What to do?"  I'll have a list of things you CAN and SHOULD do.  Our district can say no to a lot of this.  

In a nutshell:


A $100 million database set up to store extensive records on millions of public school students has stumbled badly since its launch this spring, with officials in several states backing away from the project amid protests from irate parents.

The database, funded mostly by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is intended to track students from kindergarten through high school by storing myriad data points: test scores, learning 
disabilities, discipline records - even teacher assessments of a child's character. The idea is that consolidated records make it easier for teachers to use software that mines data to identify academic weaknesses. Games