CALL TO ACTION:
Please contact your US Congressman by Tuesday, October 31. Ask them to say NO to College Transparency Act and yes to tighten FERPA to:
– stop collecting student data without explicit parental or adult student opt-in permission;
– enable complete opt out of student record level information, deleting previously collected data;
– define state level requirements for secure data and restricted access;
– retain the law preventing a national student data record level data base.
Thank you for your efforts. Together we can make a difference.
Background:
Two actions are underway in DC next week.
First, there is planned discussion on existing legislation, College Transparency Act, which sounds good, but actually creates a federal database for post secondary students. And Section 3 of the bill, lines 6-9 on page 23, actually repeals the 2008 Higher Education Act’s ban on a federal student unit record system. Very alarming.
Second, “education researchers” will be headed to your Congressman’s office in DC next week to advocate for an expansion of the data collected, K-12 and higher education. They want to sell Congress on the idea of easing access and creating a national data base to support the Pre-natal into the Workforce data system.
Inform your Congress person that “educational research” to improve educational outcomes is a ruse. Parents know, if evidence had mattered, Common Core would never have been adopted. If evidence mattered, Common Core would be thrown out and replaced by real educational standards. Evidence based practices, like phonics, are not prevalent, and they should. Expanding data and access for “researchers” will not improve educational outcomes for our kids.
Here is more information:
Researcher recommendations on FERPA legislation
Data breaches have already occurred. Schools are being blackmailed as hackers claim to be holding student data hostage.
Here is an article documenting the occurrences.
http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/data-breaches-cyber-hacks-and-ransom-notes-in-schools/