Legislation called “The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act” has been introduced in both houses of Congress. Nice name, no? Don’t you think you should have “the right to know before you go” to a college or university?
What it really means is that the federal government will:
authorize the creation of a federal database of all college students, complete with their personally identifiable information, tracking them through college and into the workforce, including their earnings, Social Security numbers, and more. The ostensible purpose of the bill? To provide better consumer information to parents and students so they can make “smart higher education investments.”
Big Data, the answer to all problems. All you need do is surrender your privacy and become someone’s data point, perhaps the point of sales.
Barmak Nassirian, writing on the blog of Studentprivacymatters, warns about the dangers this legislation poses. He wrote originally in response to an article endorsing the legislation by researchers at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who viewed the invasion of personal privacy as less significant than the need for consumer information about one’s choice of a college or university:
First, let’s be clear that the data in question would be personally identifiable information of every student (regardless of whether they seek or obtain any benefits from the government), that these data would be collected without the individual’s consent or knowledge, that each individual’s educational data would be linked to income data collected for unrelated purposes, and that the highly personal information residing for the first time in the same data-system would be tracked and updated over time.
Second, the open-ended justification for the collection and maintenance of the data (“better consumer information”) strongly suggests that the data systems in question would have very long, if not permanent, record-retention policies. They, in other words, would effectively become life-long dossiers on individuals.
Third, the amorphous rationale for matching collegiate and employment data would predictably spread and justify the concatenation of other “related” data into individuals’ longitudinal records. The giant sucking sound we would hear could be the sound of personally identifiable data from individuals’ K12, juvenile justice, military service, incarceration, and health records being pulled into their national dossiers.
Fourth, the lack of explicit intentionality as to the compelling governmental interest that would justify such a surveillance system is an open invitation for mission creep. The availability of a dataset as rich as even the most basic version of the system in question would quickly turn it into the go-to data mart for other federal and state agencies, and result in currently unthinkable uses that would never have been authorized if proposed as allowable disclosures in the first place.
This is a bill that conservatives and liberals should be fighting against. Imagine if such a data-set existed; how long would it be before the data were hacked, for fun and profit, exposing personally identifiable information about students who had never given their consent? Didn’t the government recently become aware of a massive hack of its personnel records?
According to the New York Times:
For more than five years, American intelligence agencies followed several groups of Chinese hackers who were systematically draining information from defense contractors, energy firms and electronics makers, their targets shifting to fit Beijing’s latest economic priorities.
But last summer, officials lost the trail as some of the hackers changed focus again, burrowing deep into United States government computer systems that contain vast troves of personnel data, according to American officials briefed on a federal investigation into the attack and private security experts.
Undetected for nearly a year, the Chinese intruders executed a sophisticated attack that gave them “administrator privileges” into the computer networks at the Office of Personnel Management, mimicking the credentials of people who run the agency’s systems, two senior administration officials said. The hackers began siphoning out a rush of data after constructing what amounted to an electronic pipeline that led back to China, investigators told Congress last week in classified briefings.
How long will a treasure trove of personally identifiable student data remain confidential?
If this bill passes, farewell to privacy.
like
Like Lazarus…inBloom is resurrected.
What are these morons on the Hill thinking? Link college student data by SS#, college and earnings to provide a better college experience to new students and their parent seeking college information. No opt- out and it doesn’t matter if you take out a loan to help you pay. Just the other day OPM suffered a major hack and background data breech. WT? are they thinking?
I’m thinking of creating a Federal, state, and local db with the name of the rep, their SS #, property tax records link and their votes. That way I can see how much each vote costs and whether they should be re-elected next election cycle. I might also include their financial disclosure forms to see how much their wealth has increased. Any volunteers? You know what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
The Clinton Foundation has been working on these “Digital Badges”. Your toilet training records from Pre K Common Core may prevent you from “competing” for “21st century” jobs. I don’t believe anything about Chinese hackers, when we deny that we are doing the same thing.
They’re “creating new pathways of opportunity for you to get ahead”
The idea that there’s something wrong with the workforce and that’s why wages are stagnant and income inequality has soared is very popular.
Unsurprising, really. The problem is not the leaders in government and the private sector. The problem is working people. Us, not them.
Chiara,
The corporations outsource jobs to low-wage countries and then excuse their doing so by saying that American workers lack the skills they want. In fact, they don’t want to pay American wages; they prefer to pay $1 an hour, and Americans won’t work for that.
So we know where Hillary stands on this. And the Clinton Foundation is represented on the Board of StudentsFirst…along with Rhee, Boies, Dan Senor, etc…a diverse lot of reformers.
“Transparency” has replaced regulation.
Let the buyer beware! is a weird slogan for regulators to adopt but it’s certainly easier than actually regulating anything 🙂
Value added measurement and grades for colleges and students, based on bassackwards algorithms are on the way, yay!
It also assumes the primary purpose and focus of college is to make money.
Say I graduate with a degree in English from one school, end up with a Masters in Business, and make a boat load of money. It wasn’t my first college that defined the amount of money I make but my second, and I could have as easily flopped out of school.
Predictably, schools that might be just fine for many degrees will get tainted with a bad brush if students receive lots of financial aid/are unable to avoid working while in college. It doesn’t take a whole lot to come to the conclusion that college is a lot easier when you can afford to focus on it solely – which will exaggerate inequality that is already present.
It will also be a driving force for colleges to shut down majors that don’t pull a lot of money for graduates so they can focus on “attractive” fields. This will have the effect of killing many humanities courses and focusing on vocational degrees for jobs that may end up being destroyed in a decade (which is the danger of a degree that is so specialized – immediately useful and pays out but hard to transfer).
This has the net effect of coercing college students into funding their own job training rather than letting students explore and choose what’s best (since the next step is for the government to stop funding specific degrees at colleges that don’t graduate enough students and/or those students end up defaulting on lots of their loans).
Information may be “power” but in this case it serves to drive colleges and individuals to specifically the outcomes the government deems worthy of information for.
I can already predict that colleges that favor lower income individuals from low income communities will be the most vulnerable to funding cuts and it is those colleges that will be targeted to produce only money earning degrees as funding is cut away from student loans – never mind that plenty of degrees serve as bridges to upper level degrees (most people I know their undergraduate degree did not directly pertain to their upper level degree)
M: good points but…
The advantaged crowd that the heavyweights in the self-proclaimed “education reform” movement run with, will continue to ensure that THEIR OWN CHILDREN get an enriched [pun intended] learning experience.
And it’s already here. Take Chris Christie [a la Henny Youngman: PLEASE!] and Delbarton School where he sends his own children.
What terrors of rigor and grit await little tykes during the summer at a school with a Christie seal of approval? Well, summer in general sounds terrifying: “The Delbarton Summer Session is a state-accredited, co-educational academic program to advance and enrich the education of students entering grades six through twelve. Experienced Delbarton teachers lead small classes in a state-of-the-art, air-conditioned pavilion.”
😱
Just one example of what they will endure:
[start]
The Delbarton Sports Camps is a summertime extension of the successful Green Wave athletic program, where young athletes learn the keys to success in sports and in their personal lives. Held on the expansive Delbarton campus, weekly sports-specific camps (for campers entering Grades 5-9) and general sports camp (for campers entering Grades 3-8) builds upon the more than forty-year day camp program previously offered. Our coaches emphasize the pleasure of playing each sport while developing athletic skills and good sportsmanship. In addition, our sports camps provide an outstanding opportunity for students to supplement their academic program while attending the summer session.
[end]
Surely this must be nothing but pure 21st cage busting achievement gap crushing blended learning excellence, right?!?!?!
Uh, the page on which the above appear starts with this disappointing [?] explanation:
“The Delbarton Summer Programs are rooted in the 1500 year Benedictine tradition of excellence in education and the development of the whole person. Our philosophy promotes the unity and the development of body, mind and spirit within the growing human being. As such, Delbarton is pleased to offer the community a coeducational academic summer session for students Grades 4-12 and a summer sports camps for boys Grades 3-9.”
http://www.delbarton.org/summer/index.aspx
But what about data collection and analysis? Sheesh….maybe a rescue mission needs to be mounted…
😏
Or not.
😎
You described the bubbles and busts aspect quite well. I can only imagine for-profit schools benefiting from this, they can tailor their offerings on the fly or create shell institutions to hop on and off bubbles. Or even take it one step nastier and manufacture bubbles or busts. Students are left with the bag.
It’s almost like that scene from Glengarry Glen Ross: a car salesman doesn’t sell 1 car to someone every 15 years, it’s 3 cars every 15. Maybe that’s what education is turning into, something that can be sold multiple times regardless of outcome.
Also needing to be pointed out: American Enterprise Institute is a Koch Brothers outfit. The Koch Brothers are all about expanding their business in places where it doesn’t belong, and spilling oil all over the place because it’s too profitable not to. This is particularly frightening because if AEI is championing something, perhaps it is a business Koch wants to move into and not run it correctly. Mind you, nobody deserves to be in this manufactured market.
I think it is all part of the whole “ball of wax”. From my perspective they are making citizens peons to the money making machines. They know all about you. etc etc etc/ Many of the new jobs they time workers to the second, literally.
They make corporations indoctrinate our students, ad nauseum.
Farewell to democracy. Enter autocracy, plutocracy.
I fear that by the time people wake up to what is happening, not only in education but in a wide sphere of our life ti will be too late. Corporate controlled media control “news”, the thinking of people.
How can we educate when government, corporations make out the test questions, grade them and evaluate teachers, schools on how well students assimilate, regurgitate their “truths” on tests. Educators are not wanted, only instructors disseminating their views. Ergo: complete control. Schools, news media, just like the fascist dictators of history.
Makes no sense in a democratic society.
Students are data; data is a commodity.
I propose “The You Go First Act” which would require lawmakers to put all of this information about themselves and their family in first for a few years to see how it goes.
knight427:
TAGO!
😎
Excellent idea!
I like that proposal, Knight 427. In the Army the equivalent was relayed as “We’re right behind you (As far behind you as we can get!)”
Reblogged this on Vanessa's Blogueria.
The proposed law to monetize the worth of a degree certainly reflects the values of Bill Gates and his “Data Quality Campaign,” and his desire to stack rank almost anything he can, preferably with publication in U.S. News and World report. I recall vividly that he once said he wanted kids to “get a college degree that is worth something,” meaning worth money.
In prior posts I have noted that, beginning in 2005, Gates funded the Data Quality Campaign” (Orwellian name), as if in tandem and designed to complement USDE funds for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) program.
The Teacher-Student Data Link system (TSDL) system envisioned by Gates is in place as the records system for local to state reporting to USDE. In Ohio that system actually structures the categories for teacher evaluation. So, InBloom may be gone but the Gates vision has prevailed and, from the get go, his campaign was intended to “keep current and longitudinal data on the performance of teachers and individual students, as well as schools, districts, states, and educators ranging from principals to higher education faculty.
Moreover, as articulated in the Data Quality Campaign, one of the main purposes of the data gathering was to determine the “best value” investments to make in education and to monitor improvements in outcomes, taking into account as many demographic factors as possible, including health records for preschoolers. Access to such records has been made easier by USDE’s poking holes in the FERPA law that offered a bit of protection for the use of student data.
Now this proposed legislation is about higher education. Suppose it passes. Whether the oversight is done by a special agency or USDE is not clear. But if USDE has oversight of the law and the program, then all of the data management and cost/benefit on programs and degrees are likely to be outsourced to a private company, just as USDE’s data management is outsourced now. I discovered this by snooping around at the USDE website. In the process I discovered that USDE has two key people as privacy officers. One is Kathleen Styles, USDE’s first “Chief Privacy Officer”—Email: kathleen.styles@ed.gov. The second is Michael Hawes, who is her advisor and the person who oversees USDE’s extremely important “Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).” Email: michael.hawes@ed.gov
Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) is supposed to be a “one-stop” resource for learning about “data privacy, confidentiality, and security practices related to student-level longitudinal data systems and other uses of student data.” PTAC provides timely information and updated guidance on privacy, confidentiality, and security practices through a variety of resources, including training materials and opportunities to receive direct assistance with privacy, security, and confidentiality of student data systems.” This technical assistance is targeted to meet the needs of state and local education agencies and…… institutions of higher education.
PTAC is really at the center of everything–The contractor for PTAC is responsible for working under “the guidance of the Chief Privacy Officer and in close collaboration with the FERPA Working Group,” which consists of representatives of the Office of Management, the Family Policy Compliance Office, and the Office of General Counsel. PTAC also “regularly consults” with the USDE’s Privacy Advisory Committee, whose members include Chief Statistician of National Center of Education Statistics, the program officer of the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS), and representatives from the office of Federal Student Aid, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (among others).
The for-profit company managing and warehousing USDE data and at the center of all of the work of all of these agencies is Applied Engineering Management Corporation (AEM). Since 2010, (AEM) appears to have been awarded about $12 million to set up the resources at PTAC.
AEM also has contracts with OTHER federal, state, and local governments and agencies.. Their work for USDE includes management of data gathering required to support the “No Child Left Behind” legislation, including the 180 data descriptions for EdFacts. EdFacts is the destination for all of those disaggregated test scores, and other data that law requires. AEM can do heavy-duty data warehousing.
AEM has also operated the National Student Loan Data System receiving data from every college, university, and agency that participates in Title IV loan guarantees and related programs. That work gives AEM a leg up as a possible contractor for more work under the proposed legislation.
AEM’s website also says it helps “educators in developing high quality longitudinal P-20 data warehouses and business intelligence solutions that stand the test of time and enable data-driven decision making.”
AEM–-the go-to corporation for USDE’s data management and privacy–-has managed to suppress its identity as the conduit for USDE’s “big data” projects and USDE’s (pitiful) guidance to state and local agencies on privacy. Use this phrase to get to the PTAC resources “Privacy Technical Assistance Center.”
Now imagine who gets access to the data gathered under the proposed legislation, especially if the contractor specializes in “business intelligence solutions that stand the test of time.”
Thanks, Laura – you are amazing.
If this really passes, say good-bye to humanities departmenst everywhere. What incentive will any college or university have to produce graduates in English lit or such-like majors? And you psychology, anthropology, and sociology departments, watch your backs too!
Study abroad. Many do already. Some countries speak English.
Maybe you should learn how to spell “goodbye” if you’re going to write about education.
Goodby is an acceptable spelling of goodbye, and of such synonyms as adios, farewell; http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/goodby
Yes! Trolls…got to love them.