Your Children’s Freedom
is in Great Danger

By Kathy Wilmot

Could your child’s identity be stolen? Could personally identifiable information move from your child’s school record to the desk of a marketing firm? Or, worse yet, could your child be “sorted” from students headed to college and be routed to lower paying employment in the future? What could make these nightmares possible? The answer? Your state’s education data system!

You may feel this isn’t possible if your child is home schooled or attends private school.

Allow me to share some facts and then you decide.

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) came a demand for more immediate access to pre-kindergarten (PK) to grade 12 student education data. All states have developed information systems capable of tracking student progress and the teachers who teach them. These information systems have been developed and at this time most, if not all, states have mandated that all districts participate.

A company by the name of eScholar has contracted with and assisted states such as Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and others in developing a Unique ID System which allows students to be identified and tracked through their educational career from PK-12.

eScholar proudly advertises “…all e-Scholar data elements that exist in the NCES [National Center for Education Statistics] data handbooks are coded and referenced to ensure proper compliance with NCLB and the PBDMI [Performance Based Data Management Initiative] data requirements.”

The NCES referred to is the same NCES that developed the infamous U.S. Student Data Handbook that contains many personal information data elements that they recommend. One data element recommended by the NCES data handbook includes, “Reason for Non-entrance in Local Elementary or Secondary School.” This data element asks for an explanation as to why an individual of compulsory school attendance age has not entered school or has not completed high school work. The possible selections to explain non-attendance include, “home schooling...receiving educational instruction offered in a home environment, as required by local or state law, for reasons other than health” and “Religious reason - The individual or his or her parent/guardian has religious convictions that prohibit participation in the educational program of the school or education agency, and the individual is not receiving approved instruction elsewhere.”

In Nebraska, administrators are encouraged to enter as much information as they can about home schooled students in their district. As you can see from the preceding paragraph, entering such data is recommended in the NCES data handbook.

Personally identifiable information is entered on each student. Both the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Data Access and Management Policy and the Nebraska Data Access and Management Policy state, “Personally identifiable information includes information such as the student’s name; the name of the student’s parent/guardian; the address of the student or student’s family; a personal identifier, such as the state student identifier; personal characteristics or other information that would make the student’s identity easily traceable.”

Half Truths

When asked about the handling of students’ personally identifiable information contained in the state’s student information system, a common answer is, “No personally identifiable information is sent to the federal level.”

The internet-based information systems in all of the 50 states feed into state data warehouses designed to allow the federal level to “harvest” information from states regarding federal program activities at the school and district levels. A publication entitled Archived Information Improving Our Data and Information Systems (USDE website), explains that states will no longer send data to the federal government but states will collect and store the data in their own warehouses in such a way that the federal government can “harvest” it.

When you are told your state does not send personally identifiable information and data to the federal level - that is correct. Data is not sent. The federal level however can remove or “harvest” what they want from the state’s data warehouse. That means they can extract any personally identifiable information about any student they so desire.

Redefining Confidentiality

You may be asking yourself “Is my child’s information confidential?” “Who can access the data?”

Several states’ data management policies reveal when they use the term “confidentiality” it no longer means the information is safe and not shared with others. Instead, data policy documents reveal that “Confidentiality refers to an agency’s obligation not to disclose or transmit information about individual students to unauthorized parties.”

The Missouri policy states, “According to the FERPA [the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act], personally identifiable information about students may be released without parental permission to researchers authorized to develop, validate or administer predictive tests, administer student aid programs, or improve instruction.” Nebraska’s policy includes “researchers authorized to conduct data processing or research and evaluation studies for or on behalf of educational agencies/institutions.”

The U.S. Patriot Act of 2001 “permits the Attorney General to petition a court of competent jurisdiction for an ex parte order requiring the Secretary of the Department of Education to provide data relevant to an authorized investigation or prosecution of an offense concerning national or international terrorism.” (From the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.)

NCES identifies two categories of data: “Public Use Files” (anonymized) and “Restricted Use Files.” The restricted use files include “more detailed individually identifiable data used by NCES for analysis.” These files can be accessed by “Qualified researchers for approved statistical activities, subject to terms of license agreement between NCES/IES [the Institute of Educational Services] and the researchers’ institution.” Approximately two years ago, the NCES website stated they were supporting approximately 500 active data licenses. Who knows how many licenses exist today.

Conclusion

This has been a ‘short course’ on student information systems that exist today in each of the 50 states. When combined with the newly introduced Dodd-Ehlers Bill, Standards to Provide Educational Achievement for All Kids (SPEAK), which are international standards, and Marc Tucker’s continuing push to train students and prepare them for a trade (see the Tucker’s report Tough Choices or Tough Times), it is an understatement to say that our children and our freedoms are in great danger.

Kathy Wilmot, a former public school teacher, is the Policy and Procedure Manager and Public Information Officer for Norton Correctional Facility in Norton, Kansas. Kathy was twice elected to the Nebraska State Board of Education. Kathy founded the Protection of Education Rights Council in 1989 and continues to research education related topics. Kathy also conducts workshops and conferences to educate and assist individuals in understanding the dangerous reforms that are taking place. Kathy and her husband Wes reside in Beaver City, Nebraska. They have three children and seven grandchildren.