Trevon Milliard reports:
Every single child in Nevada public schools will soon be assigned an identification number and tracked in detail from preschool through high school to college under the combined efforts of a trio of state departments creating a super-data system.
The system will be completed by July 2015 and will track individual test scores and personal information including birth date, ethnicity, whether a student lives in poverty, speaks English as a second language or is classified as special education. It’s called the Statewide Longitudinal Data System — SLDS for short — and it has more than parents concerned.
Read more on Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Meanwhile in Kansas, Bryan Lowry reports bipartisan support for a state law to protect student data privacy:
Democrats and Republicans are backing a bill meant to protect electronic data compiled by schools from being misused.
Senate Education Committee gave unanimous support Tuesday to Senate Bill 367, known as the Student Data Privacy Act.
The bill would ensure that data collected on students can be shared only with parents and authorized personnel from school districts, the Board of Regents and state agencies. It school districts from collecting biometric data, such as finger prints or DNA.