The Hechinger Report – Chris Berdik
“Since 2013, state legislatures have considered about 400 student data privacy bills, and passed more than 70 into law, according to Data Quality Campaign, a nonprofit that tracks education data policy and use. Yet Colorado appears to be the only state whose law, adopted in 2016, requires that districts train all teachers and school administrators in the basics of privacy and information security. (A few states require such training for people who accesses specific, statewide student databases.) A simple Web search reveals a bonanza of free or nearly free education technology applications to tempt resource-strapped teachers. But the data protections of these vendors can’t be taken for granted. In 2016, for instance, an audit of some 1,200 Web-based education software products by the nonprofit Common Sense Education found that nearly half the offerings didn’t automatically encrypt student data.”(more)