Malta is now light-years ahead of of U.S. states in terms of collecting, using, and securing student data. Therese Bonnici reports: The government has completely re-drafted its contentious means of gathering information on students, which had sparked widespread controversy when they were first announced. Amendments to the data protection act made this week have made…
Category: Youth & Schools
IE: Concern over personal info database for every primary student
BreakingNews.ie reports: Concern is being expressed about a new Primary Online Database being established by the Department of Education. Under the plan, all children’s PPS numbers along with details of their religion and ethnic backgrounds will be included on the database, which the Department said will be used to develop education policy into the future….
FERPA Fib of the Year, 2014 Edition
This is your must-read on the misuse of FERPA. Here’s how it begins: It’s fitting that the 365-day stink-bomb that was 2014 ended with the U.S. Department of Education wadding up the last remaining shred of its credibility on FERPA and pulling the flusher with both hands. It was that kind of year. Like Pavlov’s dogs…
Dept. of Education helps schools hide their sexual-assault investigations
Samantha Watkins reports: Even as the Department of Education hammers colleges to be more transparent in their handling of sexual-assault allegations, it’s helping schools to legally hide their investigations from public scrutiny. That’s because the agency takes a broad view of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), arguing that the student-privacy law shields…