New student database slammed by privacy experts
The U.S. Education Department’s new planned system of records that will collect detailed data on thousands of students — and transfer records to private contractors — is being slammed by experts who say there are not adequate privacy safeguards embedded in the project.
The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, told the department in a January 2016 formal complaint (see below) that its new system of records for the “Impact Evaluation of Data-Driven Instruction Professional Development for Teachers” violates the Privacy Act by:
(1) collecting irrelevant and unnecessary information and (2) not clearly stating the purpose of the proposed routine use disclosures. EPIC recognizes the need to evaluate educational programs, including professional development of teachers. However, this particular study appears to be one more effort by the agency to transfer sensitive student data to private contractors without any meaningful privacy safeguards.
The Institute of Education Sciences of the Department of Educationpublished a Systems of Records Notice on Dec. 2 (see below) that says the data collection will facilitate “a rigorous study of the effectiveness of providing data-driven instruction professional development to teachers and principals.” It says:
The system will contain personally identifying information on approximately 12,000 students, 500 teachers, and 104 principals from 104 schools in 12 school districts and will include, but will not necessarily be limited to, data on: (1) for students, standardized math and English/Language Arts test scores, age, sex, race/ ethnicity, grade, eligibility for free/reduced-price lunches, English Learner status, individualized education plan status, school enrollment dates, attendance records, and discipline records, and (2) for principals and teachers, individual district identifiers, school assignments, grades and subjectsNew student database slammed by privacy experts - The Washington Post: