Sheila Kaplan of Education New York is a tireless advocate for the privacy rights of children and families.
Those rights are now under serious threat, since the U.S. Department of Education decided to change the regulations that protect them (FERPA).
She suggests you read the following:
Software Industries NPRM to US ED about the 2011 Rule changes.
Click to access Comment_on_FR_Doc_2011_08205_11software.pdf
http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=24
Here is board of software industry association: http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=125
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It doesn’t look like anyone on the education division board is a teacher. Once again no representation for children, parents or teachers. Most people don’t even know about the FERPA changes…even public school administrators.
You might want to read today’s article from Stephanie Simon:
K-12 student database jazzes tech startups, spooks parents
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/03/us-education-database-idUSBRE92204W20130303
Thanks for the link, Ed. Timely & useful information.
How do we get the word out, Sheila? Most people, even teachers and public school adminstrators, are not even aware of this.
Anytime high tech companies are salivating over a development in policy, the alarm bells should start clanging. They are not swooning over the potential benefits to children and teachers; they are seeing dollar signs.
If parents knew how many different people/parties have access to the test scores of their children, there would be a revolt. Many testing vendors (pearson, scholastic, renaissance learning, and dozens of other test prep and data management companies get massive amounts of personal student demographic, and achievement data.)
Until the child of a wealthy and powerful famy gets their information leaked, nothing will be done.
Privacy is not an issue for those who send their kids to expensive prep schools that do not need to follow the mandates. Soon the words PRIVATE SCHOOL will have a new meaning.
I’m not concerned as much about selling the data to companies, I’m concerned with the data following these kids to their future employers. When they go and apply for jobs in the future. This data is being shared with the Labor Dept.
I too, am concerned about data going to future employers. FERPA was supposed to prevent that from happening. Watch out for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) Currently, they can sell data to future employers.
MOOCs aren’t just higher education. They’re sliding into HS. Khan Academy is a MOOC however would have to check their privacy policy again to see if they share. I am Coursera does.
There is no need to have personally identifiable data go to these companies and that is the crux of the matter. Aggregate, anonymous data can be used to create programs, inform instruction etc. But once data leaves a district with a name attached (and now, as a result of some new mandates, possibly additional bits of information such as personality assessment data or learning style data) you now have psychological and academic data that can be used to profile individual people for purposes which may violate their civil rights as well as what you mentioned above – following children throughout their life! The covert changes to FERPA are extremely questionable. I can’t believe that for the price of a public education, parents are going to be forced to sacrifice their children’s future security in this way.
FERPA has been a mixed bag. I blew the whistle in 2002 at Wilson HS in Washington, DC, (where I was a history teacher) on student grade changes and students certified for graduation despite failure to meet mandatory graduation requirements. The school administration or those to whom it gave data entry access were responsible. An independent quasi-audit found undocumented grade changes in every DCPS high school. It became very clear that this is a massive and mostly unseen problem in high schools – far beyond the stereotype of the star football player getting break.
These abuses occur because administrators use the FERPA to deny legitimate internal oversight. FERPA provisions allow administrators to designate those staff or others who are authorized to handle or review student records.
Since student grades are, in effect, a de facto currency, those who benefit from the debasement of this currency through inflated promotion and graduation rates, etc.,can use the FERPA to conceal their alterations.
As private vendors get access to students’ records, internal oversight checks will continue to be almost non-existent – especially in the current atmosphere of teacher intimidation.