***The following is a portion of a book I wrote that explains the kinds of personal info the federal government has been collecting on school children and their families--for decades. I realize this is off topic. Sorry!
A report on the Education Data System Implementation Project (EDSIP) produced by the Council of Chief State School Officers in conjunction with the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) explains:
Even before the establishment of the Goals and the subsequent America 2000 strategy, the National Cooperative Education Statistic Systems was established by the Hawkins-Stafford Education Improvement Amendments of 1988 (P. L. 100-297) to involve state and federal governments in a mutual effort to produce state-comparable and nationally uniform data on public and private school systems.... (emphasis added)
The paper goes on to tell about the development of
two data handbooks completed by July 1994—one on student information and one on staff information....
Consider just how personal and specific the following examples of data elements are. These are taken word-for-word (
except for the information in brackets [ ]) from the handbook and apply to students. Some data elements even apply to students’ families, including brothers and sisters.
Data Element Number/ Data Element
0130/ Identification Number [for student]
0180/ Birthdate [for student]
0300/ Religious Background
[includes a list of religions and denominations]
0630/ Family Income Range
0770/ Employment Status [for parents]
0110/ Name of Individual [for student’s sibling(s)]
0130/ Identification Number [for student’s sibling(s)]
0180/ Birthdate [for student’s sibling(s)]
1012/ Number of Days Absent
1120/ Discontinuing Schooling Reason
1140/ Residence After Exiting/Withdrawing From School
1160/ Reason for Non-Entrance in Local Elementary
and Secondary School
Under “
Data Element Detail”—Options for data element 1160: 03—Home schooling and
05—Religious reason
1602/ Activity Description [“student’s participation in cocurricular & extracurricular activities“]
1959/ Non-Participation Reason
[under “Administrative Issues” for assessments]
Under “
Entity Uses” [i.e. who will use this information about the student] for #1959,
“Evaluator” is listed.
Chapter 3. Definition of Terms—Entity List,
Evaluator: “An individual responsible for performing a systematic evaluation of specified aspects, conditions, or progress of a student including his or her academic, physical, emotional, psychological, and economic status. Results may include recommendations for providing specific treatment or support to the student.”
1890/ Assessment Type
Under “Options for data element #1890”:
“
05 Attitudinal Test—An assessment to measure the mental and emotional set or pattern of likes and dislikes or opinions held by a student or a group of students. This is often used in relation to considerations such as controversial issues or
personal adjustments.”
“
13 Personality Test—An assessment to measure a student’s affective or nonintellectual aspects of behavior such as emotional adjustment, interpersonal relations, motivation, interests, and attitudes.”
“
15 Psychological Test—An assessment to measure a sample of behavior in an objective and standardized way.”
2100/ Score Results [for assessment tests]
2110/ Score Interpretation Information [for assessments]
Under Chapter 3. Definition of Terms—Entity List, Assessment: “A tool, instrument, process, or exhibition composed of a systematic sampling of behavior for measuring a student’s competence, knowledge, skills or behavior.
There are also extensive, specific data elements pertaining to students and their families under the following categories: “Oral Health,” “Conditions at Birth,” “Health History,” “Medical Evaluations,” “Medical Laboratory Tests,” “Nutrition,” “Health Care Provider,” “Early Childhood Program Participation,” “Individualized Education Program [IEP] Information.” Under “Discipline” there are data elements for student offenses and disciplinary action. There’s even a category for a student’s mother’s “Maternal and Pre-Natal Condition” while she was pregnant with the student.
.
