Data and Privacy

Data privacy and security are foundational elements of digital learning. The district ensures that sound data governance policies are enacted and enforced to ensure the privacy, safety, and security of confidential data sets. Such policies and procedures ensure that access to authorized persons is secure. Education professionals have a range of resources, trainings, and services available to build their awareness and capacity to implement such policies and procedures with precision.

The elements that comprise this Gear are as follows:

Data and Data Systems
Data Policies, Procedures, and Practices
Data-Informed Decision Making
Data Literate Education Professionals

A personalized, learner-centered environment uses technology to collect, analyze, and organize data to provide continuous cycles of feedback to students, teachers and other education professionals, with the intent of increasing the depth, breadth, complexity, and efficiency of learning. All policies and practices ensure student data privacy.

Click to view Data and Privacy Self-Assessment.

Featured Resources

You Need Data to Personalize Learning

or all children to be ready for college and careers, they need a learning experience tailored to their unique needs, skills, and interests. These resources show how data makes this personalized learning possible. When students, parents, teachers, and leaders are empowered with the data they need when they need it, there are so many ways to personalize learning.
Data Quality Campaign

Getting the Facts Straight About Education Data

Education data can empower educators, students, parents, and policymakers with the information they need to make the best decisions to improve student achievement, information that can move the nation toward an education system in which every student graduates prepared for college and career. Safeguarding the privacy of student data is a critical component of effective data use, and this data stewardship is a shared responsibility.
Data Quality Campaign

Federal Privacy Laws that Apply to Children and Education

This table identifies federal policies that safeguard and protect the confidentiality of personal information. Although this list is not exhaustive, it highlights key federal policies related to education records, health information, and the online activities of children. For detailed information about each law, just click on the title.
Data Quality Campaign

Roadmap to Safeguarding Student Data: Key Focus Areas for State Education Agencies

If our destination is improved student achievement, we cannot get there without valuing and effectively using data in education. Central to reaching this goal is building trust among all those who have a stake in education that individual student data, such as attendance, course taking, grades, and test scores, are being collected for meaningful purposes and kept safe, secure, and private.
Data Quality Campaign

Capacity Enablers and Barriers for Learning Analytics

The learning analytics initiatives described in this paper are helping states and districts move from being data collectors to being data analyzers, able to use the vast amount of information being collected in a secure, practical, customized, and predictive system.
Alliance for Excellent Education

Data Mining & Student Privacy

On June 25, in testimony before a joint congressional hearing on student data and privacy, the Alliance for Excellent Education advocated for the use of student data to strengthen student achievement and personalize learning for individual students while simultaneously maintaining high levels of student privacy.
House Education and the Workforce Committee Hearings and Meetings

Additional Resources

Elements and Levels of Readiness

Data and privacy are foundational elements of digital learning. A personalized, learner-centered environment uses technology to collect, analyze, and organize data to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of learning. Data is the building block of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments—all of which are key elements in a system where learning is personalized, individualized, and differentiated to ensure learner success. The district ensures that sound data privacy and security policies, procedures, and practices are in place at the district, school, classroom, and student levels.

The Future Ready Framework

Data and Privacy

Featured Resources

Additional Resources

Elements and Levels of Readiness

Data and Data Systems

Data Policies, Procedures, and Practices

Data-Informed Decision Making

Data Literate Education Professionals