Doug Hrdlicka reports: A new partnership between Jeffco Public Schools and 26 other districts nationwide could lead to more rigid security measures for student data. For the next six months 27 school districts, working with The Consortium for School Networking, will work toward establishing a nationwide set of standards around student privacy. The end result will…
Category: Youth & Schools
Students under surveillance
Helen Warrell reports: A week after students begin their distance learning courses at the UK’s Open University this October, a computer program will have predicted their final grade. An algorithm monitoring how much the new recruits have read of their online textbooks, and how keenly they have engaged with web learning forums, will cross-reference this…
KY: Glasgow school district updates policy on search and seizure
I wish every local community had the kind of detailed reporting on student privacy issues that Melinda J. Overstreet provides in her coverage of a change in Glasgow Independent Schools’ policies. From the newly drafted policies: “In the school environment, a search is permissible where a school official has reasonable grounds, a ‘suspicion,’ based upon…
Massachusetts DESE finds Tewksbury breach violated state law
In April, this site noted what I described as a “horrific” breach involving the Tewksbury public schools. A document included in a 222-page School Committee packet that had been publicly available online not only exposed personal and private details for the out of district placements of 83 special education students, but it rated their parents according to their “cooperativeness”…