In the past few years, the privacy protections built into federal law have been weakened by the U.S. Department of Education to allow third-parties to access confidential information about students.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center summarizes the chronology. It has filed a lawsuit to fight the Department’s new policy, which will give the private sector access to confidential student data.
In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Education changed the regulations governing the release of student data to the private sector, without Congressional authorization to do so. At that time, “the ED issued final regulations implementing its proposed amendments, despite the agency’s admission that “numerous commenters . . . stated that they believe the Department lacks the statutory authority to promulgate the proposed regulations contained in the NPRM.” The final regulations’ definitions for statutory terms “authorized representative,” “education program,” and “directory information” did not differ from the proposed regulations.”
The new regulations “removed limitations prohibiting educational institutions and agencies from disclosing student personally identifiable information, without first obtaining student or parental consent. For example, the proposed FERPA regulations reinterpreted FERPA statutory terms “authorized representative,” “education program,” and “directory information.” This reinterpretation gives non-governmental actors increased access to student personal data.”
In January 2012, the Education Department and the federal Office of Science and Technology Policy created something called the Education Data Initiative. All these terms obscure what is going on: The Department of Education is colluding to release confidential student data to third-party vendors.
Here is what the Electronic Privacy Information Center says about this intrusion:
“The Education Data Initiative reflects a growing trend with student data: government agencies are taking personal information that students are required to provide, skirting federal regulations, and turning student data over to the private sector with few, if any, safeguards for privacy and security.”
This is the background for inBloom, the massive database of confidential student information funded by the Gates Foundation with $100 million, assembled by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, stored on a “cloud” by amazon.com.
Tech entrepreneurs are excited by the prospects of using student data for marketing purposes, according to this article in Reuters.
But why isn’t the U.S. Department of Education fighting to protect student privacy? Why did it weaken the FERPA law? Why is it acting on behalf of the private sector? They have their own lobbyists.
What do I do with your blog? It’s so much. I feel so overwhelmed.
Matt, this blog is for people who are passionate about education. If you are overwhelmed, I can understand. Unsubscribe
I think Matt’s question is a good one. What do we do with this information? We are in the midst of a battle – and the reports keeping coming in about how deeply in the midst of this battle we really are.
Those of us that are teachers and parents are overwhelmed. Literally, what DO we do? I feel like one single person in a town trying to let others know about data, FERPA, mandates, overstepping of education, I’ve opted out of the data collection – but I am not at school…(I have to make my children pledge to not take any surveys!) etc…..after a while, we sound like a banging gong.
Not only do we need a National forum, we need local forums. I am seriously looking for ideas. Do we advertise? Start petitions? Forums? Blogs? How do we make all this knowledge actionable?
Join the groups in your district and state that are allied with you in fighting privatization and the selling of student data. Every state has someone. Join the Network for Public Education and you may find information there to help you.
I am surprised by your answer.
Groups opposing Common Core, inBloom (and all that so-called “education reform” threatens) are rising up in most states.
If you can’t find an existing group to join, start your own Facebook group devoted to these issues, and others will join you! We can’t have too many pages devoted to sharing information and providing a platform for people to speak out!
In Nebraska, we have the NebraskaFamilyForum.org (and our Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nebraskafamilypolicyforum/
In Maryland, there is Stop Common Core: Maryland Moms for Local Control of Education: https://www.facebook.com/groups/501123453267610/
Some groups fighting Common Core (like the Maryland group) are driven by a belief that this threat is more partisan and they seem more apt to frame the issues in those terms.
I can proudly say that the Nebraska Family Forum (which is our group) was founded by two moms who self-identify as pretty hard-core conservative, but when they moved from Nebraska, they turned the forum over to two of us moms who self-identify as far left. (I’m one of them). We have over 500 members of all political persuasions, and that is what makes us so effective.
In fact, Common Core is a product of the drive for profit and control over public education by those representing both major parties (the twin parties of Capitalism/Corporatism), and no one can claim innocence or blame.
We need to realize that the fight against Common Core, and other high-stakes testing initiatives (No Child Left Behind, Race To The Top), “value-added education reform,” and data mining is a fight that cuts across all political spectrums.
This is not conservatives vs. liberals. It’s a human fight. It’s a family fight. It’s a USAmerican fight. It’s a fight to save public education from corporatists and the administrators and politicians founding their careers upon selling our children’s educational futures and our privacy for a profit!
No one party or political perspective is taking the lead on this fight against Common Core, either. I have joined legions of anti-Common-Core activists who self-identify as both far left and far right. This is a threat to every child and family in America, and until we realize this and put aside divisiveness for unity, we’re in deep trouble.
I think I understand Diane’s response to Matt. If you subscribe and receive every post by email, it can be overwhelming because this is a very active blog. I unsubscribed awhile back, so that I’m not inundated with emails, and now I just read the pages and posts that I choose.
i am also .. a little disappointed is more like it
seeing as how it was a genuine question and we are on eachother’s side ..
Matt, Check out http://www.stopcommoncore.com They have a list of groups in each state that you can join to help fight Common Core.
Not to worry, the Obama, Gates and other children of privilege will not be effected. The changes will only effect the privacy rights of “other people’s children”.
Carry on with the reform…
Is the U.S. Office of Civil Rights asleep at the wheel, or have they been bought by corporate interests as well? Maybe time to seek intervention by the ACLU, the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, or some other such legal powerhouse?
I have contacted ACLU but things have escalated so if anyone knows anyone there please help. The directory is Chris Calabrese & this was their comments regarding the 2011 rule change.
Click to access ACLU_Comments_on_Changes_to_the_Family_Educational_Rights_and_Privacy_Act_FERPA.pdf
I have comments by those FOR the rule change. I will post them. Things like the Software Association — wait until you see who they represent.
These kids never had a chance of FERPA becoming more protective when they needed it the most up against the Software Association. I have others.
The problem is that the ACLU et al are so buried by the dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of Constitutional crises happening every day – “state’s secrets”, the war on whistleblowers, drones, indefinite detention, illegal surveillance, etc., etc. They’re all working frantically but when the Constitution and other laws are being violated from so many different angles by the most powerful of the most powerful, where do you even start and how do you proceed, especially when you’re up against the full scale power of the U.S. government and you only have limited funding? The ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Lawyer’s Committee, the Southern Poverty Law Center and others may be “powerhouses”, but they’re finding themselves virtually powerless against the broadside assault by the elites on the rule of law.
I am contacting the American Center for Law and Justice–I suggest you do the same. While there are smaller, individual suits popping up, we need one national one to take center stage to address all issues of Common Core. There is a menu of them, and right now, only a few are being tackled by law suits.
Our government is not truly ours. It is run like a private enterprise and “departments” are agencies. They don’t serve us, we serve them. Education is a threat, so it will be transformed into “training” for the masses. Real,non-standardized knowledge will be reserved for the elite.
So much for Obama being a “Democrat.”
Children are marketed as consumers without protection. They need to apply the Fair Information Practice Principles to student data. That would go a long way.
Bob Gellman wrote:
FAIR INFORMATION PRACTICES: A Basic History
Click to access rg-FIPShistory.pdf
InBloom would still exist. However students would have greater protection of data.
Actually start with this — FTC
FAIR INFORMATION PRACTICE PRINCIPLES
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/privacy3/fairinfo.shtm
Thank you, Dr. Ravitch, for this important timeline and summary of events that explains how inBloom is allowed to collect and share our children’s personally identifiable confidential data without parental consent. Had Gates & Carnegie launched inBloom prior to January 2012, the law would have required written parental permission.
The EPIC lawsuit you referenced charges the USDE with “exceeding its authority” to revise federal law. If EPIC is successful in court and data on our children has been collected and shared against the law (without consent), what will happen to our children’s records? Shouldn’t piloting states/districts ask for parental consent if for no other reason than to protect themselves?
How about a mass boycout of Amazon.com and all Amazon related websites until they refuse to host the data anymore…
Merry,
I will not support Amazon. Thanks for the idea.
Software & Information Industry Association & how they think your children’s records should be treated:
Click to access Comment_on_FR_Doc_2011_08205_11software.pdf
Here’s Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) Comments on 2011 FERPA RULE CHANGE
CCSSO own the Common Core State Standards Copyright with the National Governor’s Association (NGA).
Click to access ccsso.pdf
This is going to be a “Battle Royale.” It also shows the complete corruption of the Obama and Duncan administration concerning schools and their total lack of concern for human and civil rights, privacy and the future of our society as long as they get the “Big Payoff in the Sky” when they leave as has happened to Clinton. First, let’s get rid of Duncan for lying to the California Legislature when he was superintendent of Chicago to promote mayoral control. If it could happen to Rod Paige for lying about the dropout rate in Houston why not to Duncan now? Then let’s put the squeeze play on Obama for being a sell out in almost every sector considering the rights of the common public instead of all for the billionaires and corporations. He sold us that “Touchy-Feely stuff” and we bought it. It took about 1.5 years and I realized we had been had.
Some of weren’t had by his rhetoric! He has been a tool of the oligarchy for too long.
Diane, thank you for being on top of this. I have testified twice on this topic at the Oregon State Legislature trying to get increased protections for student privacy rights. Here is a link to my latest testimony in case people find it helpful in understanding the situation. There are lots of references at the end.
https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2013R1/Downloads/CommitteeMeetingDocument/15310
Great testimony. I will tweet.
Diane,
The American Council on Education expressed concerns about the FERPA rule change:
Click to access ace.pdf
The most bizarre was the Head Start opposed the rule change saying they’re under HHS authority, not he USED, and the USED was acting beyond their authority.
HEAD START says US ED acted beyond their authority. This one is interesting.
Click to access headstart.pdf
Duncan is helping to ensure he gets a high paying job through his data cronies. Just watch where he gets a job after leaving office.
George, OMG! I cannot believe you 1. Voted for Obama 2. Believed anything he said 3. Took so long to realize he is a fake.
Sorry to be so blunt, but we can’t keep on being naive. I’m about ready to stop voting all together because if we think any elected politician represents us, we are all nuts. Politicians always describe what they do as “service.” If that were true, they would listen to the majority of the people they represent.
They get elected, then do what benefits them the most. Does anyone truly feel represented? I always vote and I don’t.
I share your despair over our electoral system, but I don’t believe not voting is the answer. That just cedes what little voice we have remaining. Wherever possible vote for third party candidates. If we all would get over the “lesser of two evils” mentality and vote for the candidates who actually represent us, third party candidates would actually have a fighting chance. Or at the very least, they would split enough elections that the mainstream party candidates would learn that they do need to listen to those of us on the “fringe”. If no third-party candidates are available, write in a candidate. That may not do much, but it at least registers your disapproval with the system, rather than appearing like you just don’t care.
And best of all, find people (yourself included) willing and able to run for local offices. Get to know your neighbors and start discussing local concerns. You may be up against a candidate who is better funded and you might not win, but you’ll get the chance to get the word out and raise awareness. Eventually we can reclaim enough local control to build on that at the state and federal level.
The goal should be to reclaim our democracy, not give up on it.
Here’s another example of taxpayers being unwilling to spend the money needed to provide an unarguably necessary service to schools. Schools are already collecting this data— in some cases on paper and in other cases electronically on computer systems that are not interoperable: sometimes within systems and almost always between systems. This means that when a student transfers from school A to school B someone needs to either sift through a file folder or manually enter data into the school’s system. This same lack of interoperability plagues medicine. Because this results in lots of lost time and poor medical care, the creation of a uniform medical records system is part of the Obamacare initiative. I cannot imagine the public would ever accept the sale of medical records to the private sector. Thank you for beating the drum loudly on this issue… I’ve got to believe that once parents, teachers, Board members, and politicians see what is going on this loophole will be closed and schools will get the money they need to implement better data storage and collection systems… But it sounds like the train has already left the station…
Diane,
Thank you for covering this important topic. Those of us who are fighting Common Core are also alerting the public about the invasive data collection that is being done on our students. In Indiana halting the Common Core, at least until a more thorough review can be done, is the first step. Please encourage your Hoosier readers to call their State Representatives at (317)232-9600 and urge them to support HB1427, as it has been amended by the Senate. (The Senate Education Committee added the Common Core “time-out” language to this house bill, because the Chairman of the House Education Committee refused to give a hearing to the bill passed by the Senate. When the full Senate passes HB1427, which it is expected to do within the next two days, it will go directly to the full House for a vote. The Republican Chairman of the Education Committee, and possibly others in leadership positions, will pressure members to vote against HB1427. For this reason, we need the citizens of Indiana to make their voices heard. Please help us spread the word.
Heather Crossin
Co-Founder of Hoosiers Against Common Core (www.hoosiersagainstcommoncore.com)
Uh, oh. I just read this in my child’s history textbook. Do you think it could be related?
“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under Walmart, shall have a new Incorporation of freedom; and that government of the Corporations, by the Corporations, for the Corporations, shall not perish from the earth except in perishable containers.”
Darn you Citizens United!
I saw a comment you made about some things going on in SEAs. Can you post it again. I saw it in an email. You talked about SEA’s getting discounts on products.
What a discussion on this thread! Education has a big problem in these days, sice there are many weapons of mass distraction around.
This article is about FERPA and student data. FERPA has nothing to do with whether common core is good, bad, or indifferent. It is another example of people trying to throw anything bad at this issue to try to muddy the waters
Race to the Top includes requirements for data warehouses. FERPA, Common Core, and Race to the Top are interwoven.
http://www.socialnewsdesk.com/loader.aspx?p=1766628&pg=7394b3ad-787c-4ddd-9fd9-99a68cce2233&sn=7309 << this is what happens with your kids data .. it's already started.
…get angry!!