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For Virginia mom Danielle Littlefield, the Internet Age arrived with a thud when Fairfax County public school officials recently completed construction of a $11 million computer database that holds 1,200 pieces of personal and academic information on each of the district's 150,000 students, including her son, Jeff. Among the data tidbits: Parents' salaries, notes about children's behavioral troubles, learning disabilities, and disciplinary problems. Also stashed: student photos, teachers' report-card commentaries, and mental-health records.
When she first heard about the district's plans to build the data warehouse, Littlefield formed a group to fight it. "Did we really need to be saving records of Johnny's schoolyard fight for future employers to look at, for perpetuity?" she recalls asking. But the database got built anyway. And now, Littlefield is fighting efforts by school officials to link it to the Web, where such data can be zapped among school officials in other districts without parents' permission. "It's not fair," says Littlefield. "There are some things, like my son's school records, that shouldn't be shared broadly."
Littlefield is not alone in her concern. She and other parents are finding themselves on the front lines of one of the nation's newest privacy battles, as school districts from New York to Oregon begin replacing aging computer systems with sophisticated new networks, powered by the Internet and capable of tracking students' behavior from preschool through college.
"DESIRED OUTCOME."
Just ask Gayle Cloud, a Riverside (Calif.) mother of four, who worries that her state's new Student Information System could represent the first step toward the creation of a Web-powered, national student database "that could track my children from cradle to grave."
So far, school systems in more than a dozen states have linked their new databases to a nationwide data-exchange program being organized by the Education Dept. under a 1994 congressional mandate. The program would make student information available to other schools, universities, government agencies, and, potentially, to employers. Says Education Dept. Systems Chief Gerry Malick: "Nobody is consciously trying to build Big Brother, but as these databases develop and start 'speaking' to each other, a national student database is the logical and desired outcome."
School officials in Washington and around the country expect to use it to help them collect and distribute -- cheaply -- all sorts of information in the name of improving education. Acknowledges John Barry, spokesman for the Pittsburgh public school system, which is building a new $25 million database: "We're not there yet, but yes, a national student database is where we're all heading, one that we can tap into via the Web." Another worry: At the same time this federal data exchange is being built, the Labor Dept. is building one too, called WORKLINK -- which Labor officials say will be able to give employers access to schools' databases.
BENEFITING STUDENTS?
Though no abuses have been reported yet -- districts say the systems are still too new -- privacy advocates contend that problems are inevitable. School privacy laws exist, but they ultimately put the burden of protecting student data on school administrators, who have the most to gain by implementing the new systems. "It's cheaper and more efficient for schools to collect as much information as possible and share it as widely as possible," says Fairfax County Information Superintendent John Gay.
To help quell privacy objections and to justify the multimillion-dollar switchovers, some school districts have been launching sophisticated public-relations campaigns to convince parents that the systems will boost the quality of education. Lee Tack, superintendent for information systems for the Iowa public school system, says the new databases will let officials analyze how well schools are doing in various ways, including the effectiveness of course offerings. For example, are students of a particular ethnic background or gender doing better in math or English courses? Why is one school falling behind others on standardized-test scores?
In Oregon, lawmakers are considering a statewide database that would analyze the correlation between per-student spending and test scores across district lines. Says Gay: "If we can establish student behavioral patterns over time to measure how outside factors may be influencing a student's performance in school, then we can intervene, and teach better."
Maybe so, but at what price? Cautions Littlefield: "Parents will need to keep up pressure on school districts to make sure their child's problems in the third grade won't cost him his first job." Parents will also have to make sure that they and their children have the right to review those records -- and a choice over who else gets to read them.
Marcia Stepanek is BW's technology strategies editor. She closely follows online privacy issues
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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