Everyone who uses student information has a responsibility to maintain students' privacy and the security of their data. Ensuring student data privacy is about so much more than complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). While privacy must be top of mind when thinking about collecting and using personally identifiable…

Each year, state legislators craft new policies that drive data use across their states, and as part of a comprehensive review of state education data legislation, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) keeps track. In 2022, state legislators introduced 131 bills in 35 states--42 of which became law in 17 states-- that would govern the use of data along…

Background: While qualitative research on intellectual disability is on the rise, researchers have frequently reported that their methods bring methodological and ethical challenges. The authors advance shadowing as an alternative method to respond to these concerns. Method: The authors draw on their experiences with shadowing on the basis of two…

Among the great challenges posed to democracy today is the use of technology, data, and automated systems in ways that threaten the rights of the American public. Too often, these tools are used to limit our opportunities and prevent our access to critical resources or services. These problems are well documented. In America and around the world,…

California needs better data on the state's education systems to uncover and remedy systemic, long-standing racial and socioeconomic inequities. To create more just institutions, students, families, policymakers, educators, and advocates need access to quality, disaggregated data that allows them to answer questions about how well the state's…

This report focuses on data governance at post-secondary institutions and related organizations. Data governance is defined as the formal execution and enforcement of authority over the management of data and data-related assets (Seiner, 2014). An overview of data governance at higher education institutions provides detail on elements of data…

The legal and ethical use of Big Data and Learning Analytics in academic libraries has been widely debated. Analyzing large data sets has tremendous potential for libraries to implement changes that help students and prove the library's value to the university. The librarian's role in safeguarding patron privacy in a university setting where…

The "Forum Guide to Data Governance" highlights how data governance programs benefit education agencies and provide timely and useful best practices, examples, and resources for agencies implementing or updating their data governance programs. This resource is intended to address the needs of federal, state, and local agencies related…

Inclusivity in data reports for undocumented students can be difficult to achieve. By nature of those students' status and livelihood, there is contention among academics and practitioners on whether this is a population that should not be formally tracked or identified, for a variety of reasons. Concerns about tracking arise because of the…

Imagine a student using an intelligent tutoring system. A researcher records the correctness and time of each of your attempts at solving a math problem, nothing more. With no names, no birth dates, no connections to the school, you would think it impossible to track the answers back to the class. Yet, class sections have been identified with no…

The work of the National Forum on Education Statistics (Forum) is a key aspect of the National Cooperative Education Statistics System (Cooperative System). The Cooperative System was established to produce and maintain, with the cooperation of the states, comparable and uniform education information and data that are useful for policymaking at…

With roots in student-centered pedagogies that go back at least to the 1900s, personalized learning meets students' learning goals, needs, context, and pace while incorporating their interests and preferences. Personalized learning in today's classroom depends upon and creates an abundance of rich student data, which simultaneously fosters new…

Recent technological advances have led to tremendous capacities for collecting, storing and analyzing data being created at an ever-increasing speed from diverse sources. Academic institutions which offer open and distance learning programs, such as the Hellenic Open University, can benefit from big data relating to its students' information and…

When conceptualising knowledge gained from tapping into an internet data pool, one may question many things which can include the role of the researcher and the researched, privacy and ethics, intention, authenticity and the vastness of scope. The researcher, regardless of research intention including moral or ethical positions, must acknowledge…

Home visiting programs typically collect sensitive information about family characteristics, risk factors, and services received. States may choose to integrate these data with other early childhood data to learn more about the reach and effectiveness of the services and supports that families receive. As more states begin to integrate data across…