There is a lot of buzz in my Twitter timeline — mostly angry — over something in Washington State. David Gershgorn reported:
In an effort to curb substance abuse and flag student mental health issues, in 2018, Washington state’s King County started giving students an unusual electronic survey.
The Check Yourself screener, which is conducted in classrooms on school-issued iPads or laptops, first displays a short disclaimer indicating that the collected information is confidential but not anonymous to the school. Students who click “I accept” are then asked a series of questions about their gender identity and who they are most likely to have a crush on, as well as their age and race. The assessment also asks about drug and alcohol use, how much sleep students get, and levels of anxiety.
When students submit the survey, their name is stripped from their responses and replaced with a unique proxy identification code in an attempt to abide by federal privacy regulations.
Read more on Medium. I have not yet read the whole article myself, but I see comments on Twitter about steps parents and advocates took to address this problem, and there are still many questions and concerns. Hopefully, I’ll get to read this one today or tomorrow, but if you’ve already read it, please feel free to use the comments section to share your knowledge or reactions.