Seattle Times and OSPI Sign Deal for SPS Student Data

I learned of this yesterday but was waiting.  KUOW has done a good job showing the issues around student data privacy.

To note:

- To be clear, SPS did NOT know this was happening and was not asked.

- No data has been released as of today.

- OSPI said the data it planned to give the Times is not available through a public records request.

From the KUOW story:

KUOW obtained a copy of the two-year agreement between the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and The Seattle Times, signed last month, which authorizes eight Times journalists to work with, but not publish, confidential student and staff information, including names and Social Security numbers.
 

"Wow," said Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Jose Banda. "I wasn't aware of [this agreement], and I don’t think any of my staff was aware that this was being considered and approved."

"This is really disconcerting for us, because we've been assuring families that we are really mindful about following [data privacy] rules," Banda said.

The contract outlines measures the Times must take to secure confidential data it receives, including allowing OSPI to inspect Times facilities and requiring any confidential information to be returned or destroyed when the contract expires.

One sour note - KUOW did not explain the "grant-funded" Education Lab project at Seattle Times is thru the Gates Foundation.


What did the Times say?

Simon said he wasn’t sure which stories, if any, would come from the data, or whether the Times would actually look at individual student performance.

But he said access to this level of data is valuable.

“There’s a giant welter of data out there now,” Simon said. “I think it’s really in the public interest to pick that apart a little better and see what trends are actually happening. And I think having that kind of data, and being able to analyze it, is a way to hold the system accountable for the performance of schools.”

The Times is NOT an education service provider.  The Times will not be doing research to shape/help education.  They have access to data through OSPI thru public disclosure just like anyone else.  But OSPI says:

"In this instance, we consider the Times a research organization," said OSPI spokesman Nathan Olson in an email. "They received a grant, and came to us with a proposal, and established with us their data analysis credentials."

A state education department giving journalists the same kind of access as university researchers is "not common," said Fordham University law professor Joel Reidenberg, who studies technology and privacy and has served as an adviser to the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission. He reviewed the OSPI/Times contract for KUOW.

"The federal privacy statute that allows districts to transfer their data for research purposes is really contemplating an education policy research project, the kinds of things that would be conducted by universities or specific research centers," Reidenberg said.

"Here, [the data] is going to a newspaper, which has a variety of commercial interests, and other sorts of interests that you wouldn’t see in the context of a typical researcher," he said.

Again, about privacy:

It takes more than removing students’ names to make them anonymous, said Krish Muralidhar, a professor and data security expert at the University of Kentucky.

It would be "an easy matter" to identify students from the detailed data OSPI plans to release, he said by email, because the more pieces of information you have about people, the easier it is to identify them.

"People often think that once the data is 'de-identified' it automatically assures anonymity. Unfortunately, it does not,” Muralidhar said.

For instance, if there is only one white female special education student in a kindergarten class, removing her name from her educational record does not protect her identity.

The data-sharing agreement "is likely to provide little or no privacy," Muraldihar said. "Like many other data-sharing ideas, this does not sound like one that has been thought through."

Oh but don't worry, says the WA State Attorney General's office who drew up the agreement:


Dierk Meierbachtol, an assistant attorney general for the state, acknowledged it may be possible to identify students listed in the data OSPI has agreed to give the Times. That's why the contract bars the data from being shared outside the reporting team, Meierbachtol said.

Munson of OSPI said that if the Times violated the contract, her agency would no longer provide the newspaper with individual student data.

Well, that's a relief.  If the Times screws up, then OSPI will do something.

Bullshit.