Statewide Education Longitudinal Data Systems: Privacy and Data Protection Plans

• Activity Number: 280
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
• Author(s): Kathleen Styles*+ and Marilyn Seastrom
• Companies: Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics
• Keywords: Privacy ; de-identification ; anonymization ; data protections ; data sharing ; data use agreements

Abstract

The development of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) leads to an expansion in the amount of personally identifiable information (PII) that is maintained on America's students. For example, funds made available for SLDS through the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act were tied to a requirement for the inclusion of student and teacher identifier systems, and related data on enrollment, demographics, program participation, test records, transcript information, college readiness test scores, the successful transition to postsecondary programs, enrollment in postsecondary remedial courses, entries and exits from various levels of the education system. This expansion in student PII heightens the need for comprehensive privacy and data protection plans to support the development and use of SLDS. This paper uses the tenets of Fair Information Practices and the concepts essential to data stewardship to outline the steps required to develop a solid privacy and data protection plan or use in developing, maintaining, protecting, and using student record data.