Education Data, Student Privacy Take Spotlight at Capitol Hill Hearing; Education Week, 3/22/16

Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week; Education Data, Student Privacy Take Spotlight at Capitol Hill Hearing:

"Members of Congress weighed the concerns of parents, researchers, and educators about the sensitive intersection of education data and student privacy at a House education committee hearing Tuesday.

Among the topics: parents' desire for transparency and more control over what data is collected and how it's used; the need for researchers to have comprehensive and varied data; and the work states have done to try to safeguard the data they collect, while ensuring its usefulness to schools.

The hearing didn't take place in a vacuum. Over the past year, several lawmakers have taken a crack at revamping federal rules for how states and districts have to handle sensitive student information. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, passed in 1974, is widely seen as outdated because of its limited definition of a "student record" in a world where states, educational service vendors, and others are gathering new and diverse types of data about students."