PSAT for 2-25-14 (2): Run for the LSC
Folks, I have been asking Chicagoans to do this every two years for nearly 25 years. Despite the frustrations, the ham-handed CPS staffers, and the lack of funding for the kind of independent support LSCs need to succeed, the local school council form of site-based management is still THE BEST way to bring parents, teachers, students and the community together to improve schools. We have the tools
PSAT for 2-25-14 (1): Support HB 4558 to protect student data privacy
File an electronic witness slip in favor of an Illinois House bill to strengthen parent control over student data.Over the past few months, PURE and others have raised red flags about proposals to share Illinois students’ data with for-profit companies like inBloom. Just days after November’s More Than a Score forum on student data privacy, CPS announced it would not share data with inBloom. The state board has clarified that its own data warehouse, ISLE, is not connected with inBloom and that districts can decide individually whether they want to purchase services from inBloom.
This may be the end of inBloom in Illinois — for now. But we know that the will of education marketeers to capture and profit from student data remains strong. InBloom can simply change its name — as it has before — and try again under another guise.
That’s why it is still important for parents to have the ultimate control over their children’s private school information. That right was undermined the Duncan Ed department made to the federal student privacy act, called FERPA. Those changes took away parental rights to decide how student data would be shared with third parties.
Now Illinois State Representative Scott Drury, a Democrat from north suburban Highwood, has introduced HB 4558, a bill that would require parental consent before student data could be shared with third parties in Illinois.
The bill is called for a hearing before the House education committee tomorrow. You can submit an electronic witness slip in support of the bill.
Other bills listed on for this hearing that deserve your support are HB 3754, HB 4237, and HB 4767.
Here’s more on those bills from Illinois Jobs with Justice:
State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia has introduced three crucial bills. The first two would