NASBE’s Amelia Vance explains how states are taking action on protecting student data privacy in The Austin Chronicle.
From Richard Whittaker’s article:
“…The legislative landscape is already shifting. In 2014, there were 110 new laws dealing with student data in 36 states, and most of them put more pressure on state boards of education. According to Amelia Vance, director of education and data technology for the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), it’s an increasingly technical demand on state boards’ time, one that combines data security with opportunities for classroom innovation. “They want to find that core balance to allow more kids to achieve,” she said. NASBE’s aim is to promulgate best practices and case studies, as contemplated in West Virginia’s Student Data Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Act in 2014. It set clear roles for the state’s board of education and department of education, and defined what data can be collected and shared, and with whom. Just as importantly, it defined what data cannot be collected and stored – for example, political and religious affiliations, or sexual orientation. The West Virginia State Board of Education also adopted new policies, including rewriting the job of its chief technology officer. Vance said, “They have him work between the tech office and the acquisitions office and all the offices that a state board has, to bring people together to ask, ‘How can we protect privacy in everything that we do?'”
Vance applauds states that are proactive, not just adopting better data policies, but letting people know about them. Take Colorado: The districts that had signed up for inBloom’s services “took the brunt of public criticism, but the state board of education took that as a lesson.” Without legislative prompting, it launched an aggressive public education campaign, including a new privacy policy website, and hosted public meetings focusing solely on student data policy. “The lesson from inBloom to everyone is that youhave to, have to, have to communicate, and communication doesn’t just mean putting all your policies in a 100-page PDF.”