Laura
Chapman read this post about proposed legislation to allow massive collection
of college student data, and she did some research. This is what she found:
The
proposed law to monetize the worth of a degree certainly reflects the values of
Bill Gates and his “Data Quality Campaign,” and his desire to stack rank almost
anything he can, preferably with publication in U.S. News and World report. I
recall vividly that he once said he wanted kids to “get a college degree that
is worth something,” meaning worth money.
In
prior posts I have noted that, beginning in 2005, Gates funded the Data Quality
Campaign” (Orwellian name), as if in tandem and designed to complement USDE
funds for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) program.
The
Teacher-Student Data Link system (TSDL) system envisioned by Gates is in place
as the records system for local to state reporting to USDE. In Ohio that system
actually structures the categories for teacher evaluation. So, InBloom may be
gone but the Gates vision has prevailed and, from the get go, his campaign was
intended to “keep current and longitudinal data on the performance of teachers
and individual students, as well as schools, districts, states, and educators
ranging from principals to higher education faculty.
Moreover,
as articulated in the Data Quality Campaign, one of the main purposes of the
data gathering was to determine the “best value” investments to make in
education and to monitor improvements in outcomes, taking into account as many
demographic factors as possible, including health records for preschoolers.
Access to such records has been made easier by USDE’s poking holes in the FERPA
law that offered a bit of protection for the use of student data.
Now
this proposed legislation is about higher education. Suppose it passes. Whether
the oversight is done by a special agency or USDE is not clear. But if USDE has
oversight of the law and the program, then all of the data management and
cost/benefit on programs and degrees are likely to be outsourced to a private
company, just as USDE’s data management is outsourced now.
I discovered this by
snooping around at the USDE website. In the process I discovered that USDE has
two key people as privacy officers. One is Kathleen Styles, USDE’s first “Chief
Privacy Officer”—Email: kathleen.styles@ed.gov. The second is Michael Hawes,
who is her advisor and the person who oversees USDE’s extremely important
“Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).” Email: michael.hawes@ed.gov
Privacy
Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) is supposed to be a “one-stop” resource for
learning about “data privacy, confidentiality, and security practices related
to student-level longitudinal data systems and other uses of student data.”
PTAC provides timely information and updated guidance on privacy,
confidentiality, and security practices through a variety of resources,
including training materials and opportunities to receive direct assistance
with privacy, security, and confidentiality of student data systems.” This
technical assistance is targeted to meet the needs of state and local education
agencies and…… institutions of higher education.
PTAC
is really at the center of everything–The contractor for PTAC is responsible
for working under “the guidance of the Chief Privacy Officer and in close
collaboration with the FERPA Working Group,” which consists of representatives
of the Office of Management, the Family Policy Compliance Office, and the
Office of General Counsel. PTAC also “regularly consults” with the USDE’s
Privacy Advisory Committee, whose members include Chief Statistician of
National Center of Education Statistics, the program officer of the Statewide
Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS), and representatives from the office of
Federal Student Aid, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Office of Special
Education and Rehabilitative Services (among others).
The
for-profit company managing and warehousing USDE data and at the center of all
of the work of all of these agencies is Applied Engineering Management
Corporation (AEM). Since 2010, (AEM) appears to have been awarded about $12
million to set up the resources at PTAC.
AEM
also has contracts with OTHER federal, state, and local governments and
agencies.. Their work for USDE includes management of data gathering required
to support the “No Child Left Behind” legislation, including the 180 data
descriptions for EdFacts. EdFacts is the destination for all of those
disaggregated test scores, and other data that law requires. AEM can do
heavy-duty data warehousing.
AEM
has also operated the National Student Loan Data System receiving data from
every college, university, and agency that participates in Title IV loan
guarantees and related programs. That work gives AEM a leg up as a possible
contractor for more work under the proposed legislation.
AEM’s
website also says it helps “educators in developing high quality longitudinal
P-20 data warehouses and business intelligence solutions that stand the test of
time and enable data-driven decision making.”
AEM–-the
go-to corporation for USDE’s data management and privacy–-has managed to
suppress its identity as the conduit for USDE’s “big data” projects and USDE’s
(pitiful) guidance to state and local agencies on privacy. Use this phrase to
get to the PTAC resources “Privacy Technical Assistance Center.”
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