Catherine Gewertz reports: Schools chiefs from 34 states have banded together to make a public declaration that they will not share personally identifiable student data with the federal government. In a letter sent to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan Thursday afternoon, the state superintendents said they are trying to calm a rising tide of concern that administering…
Category: Youth & Schools
New Laws Are Needed To Protect Student Data In The Digital Age
Bradley Shear writes: Students and schools around the country are utilizing new digital technologies in ways many people did not imagine at the turn of the century and those technologies offer great promise. Just ten years ago, terms like “big data”, “the cloud”, “data mining”, and “social media” were not well known by students, parents, and…
Danger Posed by Student-Data Breaches Prompts Action
Benjamin Herold reports: Privacy advocates say the increased collection, storage, and sharing of educational data pose real threats to children and families, from identify theft to nuisance advertising, misguided profiling to increased surveillance of everyday activities. There is even the potential for physical harm to students, alleges one Arizona legislator who authored a recently passed privacy…
U.S. Education Department responds to Senator Markey’s concerns
USED has replied to a letter sent by Senator Markey concerning the privacy of student information. You can read their response here (pdf). I’m still working my way through it, but it’s obvious that a lot of their response is that they have issued “guidance.” But “guidance” does not have the force of regulation and…