Higher Ed

On Friday, June 14, FPF submitted a letter to the New York State Assembly and Senate supporting a well-crafted moratorium on facial recognition systems for security uses in public schools. 

Innovation in higher education is increasingly fueled by data. From financial aid applications, to online classes, to student success initiatives, college students provide an extraordinary amount of data to schools, companies, and the government. This data provides unprecedented insights into student behavior, and colleges are using it to shape curricula, processes, and services to meet […]

The Future of Privacy Forum tracks student privacy news very closely, and shares relevant news stories with our newsletter subscribers. Approximately every month, we post “The Top 10,” a blog with our top student privacy stories.

Washington, DC – Today, the Future of Privacy Forum released a new paper, Law Enforcement Access to Student Records: A Guide for School Administrators & Ed Tech Service Providers. With the repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last month, it is important that schools – and the companies that serve them – understand their legal options and when they may be required to disclose student personal information to law enforcement.

Today, the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking released their final report. The Commission was created through bi-partisan legislation in 2016 to “consider how to strengthen government’s evidence-building and policymaking efforts” (page 16). One of the key issues that the Commission heard from advocates on all sides about whether to overturn the current federal ban on connecting education data collected by the federal government in order to provide students, postsecondary institutions, and the public with information that could be used to improve policies or better target federal funding.

New America released a report today that addresses the use of data in higher ed analytics – predicting student outcomes and managing university academic programs based on prior data. The growing ability to gather and analyze this data allows colleges to intervene with students struggle, put in place mentoring programs, create support structures addressing “whole student” welfare, ultimately improving academic outcomes and graduation rates.

Recently, the Department of Justice and the state of North Carolina have filed counter-suits regarding the state’s so called “bathroom bill.” The North Carolina “Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act” requires students to use public restrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth and not with the gender with which they identify.

Last year, the University of California, Berkeley, announced that it was publishing a transparency report detailing government requests for data, similar to what tech companies including Google and Facebook have been doing for years.

The fifth annual Higher Education Privacy Conference (HEPC) will be held on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at the George Washington University Marvin Center in Washington, DC. The HEPC is one-day event that focuses on privacy and information management in higher education.  The event consists of a combination of speakers and smaller breakout discussion groups to […]

Which Students Succeed and Why?   “Thoughtful use of education data has tremendous potential to improve and address inequities in America’s education system. Scientists better understand how the brain incorporates new information and skills. Educators have a more accurate sense of student progress and potential risk for dropping out. Students and teachers use more detailed […]