New
federal data-tracking for college students
By Julie Quist
Issues and Action in EducationAn e-letter produced
by
EdWatch, a nonprofit organization.
May 4, 2005
The
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
strenuously objects to a proposal by a federal agency to begin a
centralized, federal database tracking system for all college students. The
National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) already tracks data on
K-12 students around the country.
Federal agencies currently pressure states to provide
them with ever more personal data on American citizens of all ages. For
example, proposals for assigning data tracking ID’s to children as young as
three are showing up in states such as Minnesota. State agencies say they
need individual child IDs to provide federal agencies with more data on
kids. The state serves as a data collection agency for federal data banks.
Now, federal agencies also want colleges to be their data collectors.
NCES hopes Congress will include authorization for a
central college-student tracking system in the 2005 Higher Education Bill.
The plan faces strong opposition across the political
spectrum from groups who consider government databases with detailed,
personal information about American citizens to be a dangerous violation of
personal privacy and a major threat to freedom. In a
letter to members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions and to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the
NAICU expressed “serious concerns” about the proposal, calling it “a threat
to student privacy”.
“Currently, IPEDS
[data] information is submitted by institutions in the aggregate on data
such as enrollments, completions, graduation rates, prices, and
financial aid. Under a student unit record data system, institutions
would submit data on a student-by-student basis. In addition, the use of
that information would be expanded beyond research to include program
administration support-further broadening the pool of individuals who
would have access to the data. Student social security numbers would be
used to match data files.“In short, this
proposal envisions a central database containing massive amounts of data
for each of the 16.5 million post-secondary students in the United
States, including those who do not receive any federal financial aid.
The idea that students would enter a federal registry by going to
college, and could be tracked for the rest of their lives, is chilling.
The proposal begins to take us down the slippery slope toward Big
Brother oversight of college students, and of those same citizens beyond
their college years.”
Still, federal money has
strings, and the “accountability” buzzword has forced 50 unwilling states
down a destructive NCLB path in K-12. Elementary students are now assigned a
permanent data file that will stay with them through their lives. Mr. Baime
of the American Association of Community Colleges predicts, “Something like
this is going to happen because of the accountability movement. There will
be some mandatory system of tracking students.” (Wall
Street Journal, 4/27/05)
The plan also changes the way personal data can be
used. The NCES is currently restricted to using data for “research,” a term
many already consider to be excessively elastic. The new proposal expands
data access to “program administration support.”
The NAICU points out that, “The existence of such a body of data will
inevitably lead to pressures to share the information with other government
agencies for any variety of other purposes. Those pressures may well prove
to be more than an education statistics agency can withstand.”
Many Republican lawmakers are unenthusiastic about
the proposal. Ohio’s Rep. John A. Boehner, for example, who chairs the
education committee in the House, opposes the idea. Also opposing it,
according to the
Chronicle of Higher Education.are organizations such as Eagle Forum and
the Free Congress Foundation, a think tank that is led by Paul M. Weyrich,
the founding president of the Heritage Foundation and a leading fund raiser
for conservative causes, that wield the some influence. Liberal privacy
rights groups are also weighing in against the proposal.
The public is becoming increasingly wary of personal
data-collecting by public and private agencies and groups in light of the
explosion of invasive surveys and screenings students are subjected to.
Permanent data files are created, and they follow individuals throughout
their lives. Mental health screening by non-professionals in schools,
home-visiting programs for infants and toddlers, and within various public
agencies has raised the fear that vague and subjective categories label
children and adults if they don’t conform to an arbitrary,
government-determined norm.
Dr. Karen Effrem of EdWatch notes that, “Due to rapid
developmental changes, it is very difficult to accurately diagnose young
children. At times, children are labelled based on their political or
religious beliefs.” EdWatch opposes the new system.
Michael Ostrolenk, lobbyist for EdWatch and national
director of the Liberty Coalition, which is made up of privacy-rights
organizations across the political spectrum, considers security a major
concern. The Liberty Coalition opposes any and all federal education
databases he said.
A recent news story out of Colorado demonstrates his
concern.
“Patients Not Notified That Their Health Records Were Stolen, Information
Was Being Collected For National Autism Study”
- Denver — Detailed health records of
more than 1,600 Colorado families — containing their most personal
information — are missing, and most of the families don’t even know it.
The records are part of an anonymous autism study and were entered into
a laptop computer — a computer that was stolen from a state health
department employee last October when she carelessly left it in her car.
But it wasn’t until January of this year that some parents — who had no
idea the data was being collected — began to find out their family’s
most private information could be for sale on the open market. “They
said they had information like Social Security numbers, address, all the
intake information that was given about our son which involved complete
family medical history and all his health records,” Ritter said.CURRENT SYSTEM
Information that colleges report to the Education Department in summary
form:
- Enrollment figures of full- and
part-time students, broken down by level of study and by race,
ethnicity, and gender- Number of degrees awarded each year,
broken down by race, ethnicity, and gender of recipient and by field of
study- The percentage of full-time, first-time
students who receive financial aid in a given year, and the average
amount they receive by type, such as federal grants, federal loans,
state grants, and institutional aid- The percentage of full-time students in
a given class who entered as freshmen and graduated within six years
- The amount of money colleges charge each
year in tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and other
expensesPROPOSED SYSTEM
Information that colleges would report to the Education Department about
each student:
- Name of student, Social Security number
or other type of identifier, address, date of birth, gender, race,
ethnicity, and citizenship- Academic major and degree plan
- High-school graduation date
- Start and end date at the college, and,
if a transfer student, date of transfer- Number of courses taken and credits
earned- Academic level (undergraduate, graduate,
or professional-school)- Tuition and fees charged and total cost
of attendance- In-state or out-of-state, full- or
part-time student- Dependency status
- Financial aid received, broken down by
federal, state, and institutional grants and federal or private student
loans- Degree granted and date
EdWatch
105 Peavey Road, Suite 116, Chaska, MN 55318
952-361-4931EdWatch is entirely user-supported. The continuation of our research and
distribution work is entirely dependent upon individual contributors. If
you want to assure that our work continues, click here. If you want to
subscribe or unsubscribe to this EdWatch e-mail service, mail to: edwatch@lakes.com. Put “subscribe” or “unsubscribe” in the SUBJECT of
the message. Resources of videos, books, and audiotapes are available on
our shopping cart.