Brittany's Classroom Management Kit

A school is an information sponge in more ways than one. Each day student’s data is entered into the school’s system, recording things as simple as the student’s name to the student’s educational history.

 

In an effort to protect student’s data from falling into the wrong hands, the federal government devised laws such as The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA applies to all schools that receive funds from the U.S. Department of Education and it strives to protect student information. This protection makes the data of a student only viewable to the parents and then the student themselves when they are 18 or are out of high school. The viewers have the right to do the following:

 

• View the records in any way that is suitable, including having copies of the records sent to them. However the school reserves the right to charge for copies that are sent.

• The legal viewer of the records has the right to request altercations to records due to perceived mistakes or if the records are inaccurate. Even if the school doesn’t alter the records after a formal hearing, the request to change it must be stated on the record.

• The legal viewer has to give written permission to the school to release information from the student’s record with exceptions given other educational organizations or appropriate officials in a given emergency.

 

Overall, FERPA strives to give students and parents legal right over deciding information’s use and who uses that information.

 

Once, all this information was held in physical copies, but as technology grew as did its potential to house all the pertinent information for the schools. However, now many schools have many data systems for different areas of concern that it’s even gotten to the point of the data being unsafe. New York Times reporter Natasha Singer writes about in her observation of Jefferson County, Colorado schools that, “there were so many information systems – for things like contact information, grades and disciplinary data, test scores, and curriculum planning for the district’s 86,000 students –that teachers had taken to scribbling the various passwords on sticky notes and posting them, insecurely, around the classroom and teachers’ room.”

 

To remedy this situation non-profit companies such as InBloom, which is based in Atlanta, seek to become all encompassing data repositories for data that people feel aren’t relative to helping teachers guide instructions. Inbloom promises that the data will help personalize learning as teachers can track learning and adjust learning as need, but recently parents in Louisiana were stirred into a tizzy when their children’s social security numbers had been uploaded to the InBloom system, which was promptly removed. However it raises questions of concern about using a data repository if there aren’t policies around it to protect the student’s privacy. According to the Washington Post, FERPA’s coverage on protecting data, which is online is hazy at best and nil at worse. To compensate for this, Khaliah Barnes the direction of the Student Privacy Project, suggests that a Student Privacy Bill of Rights should be composed to give control of data back to students and parents. This Bill of Rights should consider:

 

• That students can access data and amend any mistakes or even delete information after it’s be used for it’s educational purpose.

• That students’ data is limited to things used for educational purposes.

• That students have the right to expect that the data will be collected, used and disclosed only in ways that match the reason that data was given.

• That students have the right to have their data protected.That students have the right to have information that is clear and accessible.

• That students have the right to hold schools and any other entities accountable to the bill of fights and it’s promises.

 

These aforementioned rights should be considered by not only policy makers, but teachers as well whenever teachers upload student data , which includes such things as photographs or writings they’ve uploaded to a class wiki or blog. Some general things for teachers and schools to be aware of in terms of student privacy of any kind is the following:

 

• Permission is everything. Never assume that students or parents are alright with a teacher collecting or posting data without knowing about it.

• The Data Quality campaign, a collaborative group that strives to improve student achievement through data collection, suggests that one should ask the question: Why is the data needed, what is it’s purpose?

• Is the information that you collected secure? For example, Farmington, Maine’s Mt. Blue High School uses a cloud-based system to record grades of the students. A teacher should be aware if that program is open on an unattended laptop for fear of giving away some of the student’s privacy in terms of grades.

• Who is your audience for this data? Is the data something that can be shared with permission? Or is the data something that should be left alone?

 

All in all, a teacher might wonder why collecting data is important to their instructional duty. To this end Aimee Rogstad Guidera, executive director of the Data Quality Campaign, said, “State leaders increasingly recognize that empowering parents, educators and policymakers with the right data at the right time in the right format better ensures our young people graduate from high school prepared for postsecondary education and careers,” In other words having all that data on the student’s academic ability in one, easily reached place can help teachers track their progress over time and help guide the students in weaker areas. In the end, teachers must be aware of what data their schools has on their students so they can use that information effectively in teaching them. However, the caution in all this take of data is that student’s privacy must be guarded. So technology teachers must be aware of what data they collect on students and how they use that data and what purpose they use it.