SAD 1 gives failing grade
to state data request
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRESQUE ISLE – SAD 1 board members are displeased with a new Maine law that requires school districts to ask parents for their child’s Social Security numbers which would – in turn – be entered into the Maine Department of Education’s student data system.
A letter went home last week to parents explaining not only the department’s request, but also the school board’s position.
“Your compliance with this request is completely voluntary,” the letter reads. “We must request that you provide your child’s Social Security number, but you are not required to provide the number to us. There will be no adverse consequences for your child if you decline to provide the Social Security number. Your child will still be enrolled in school, and he or she will have all the same rights and privileges of every other student in our schools. If you are a student age 18 or over, you have the right to decide whether to allow the use of your Social Security number.”
The new law requires the Department of Education to develop the Maine Statewide Longitudinal Data System which, according to Education Commissioner Angela Faherty in a letter to superintendents of schools statewide, will manage information in order to “compile, maintain and disseminate information concerning the educational histories, placement, employment and other measures of success of participants in state educational programs.”
The collection of students’ Social Security numbers will enable the department to:
• Conduct longitudinal data studies to track individual student enrollment history and achievement data over time through linkage with post-secondary and adult education systems.
• Provide school units with longitudinal data about post-secondary readiness and success by matching records with out-of-state higher education institutions more accurately.
• Match records between the department’s longitudinal data system and early childhood preschool programs for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the programs in improving student achievement.
• Join workforce information with student data to enhance the analytical opportunities for program evaluation, curriculum, and assessment for education and economic development planning.
• Evaluate and improve education programs or conduct research for the purpose of improving education services.
At the Sept. 15 SAD 1 board meeting, directors adopted a resolution requesting that parents protect their child’s privacy by refusing to provide their child’s Social Security number.
“It seems that if those numbers are out there, it would give more people an opportunity to see it,” said director Barbara Ladner.
Recognizing that personal information stored on a computer can get “hacked into,” director Julie Freeman felt the department’s request was an “invasion of privacy.”
“It doesn’t seem like a necessary measure,” she said.
The resolution was approved by a vote of 9-4.
Though unable to attend the meeting, director Dana Allison is vehemently opposed to the law.
“I am appalled that anyone in the legislature, or any other government body, would even think up such a demand, let alone demand it. Social Security numbers were not intended for such a purpose, anyway,” she said. “Using those numbers to track graduates down the road smacks too much of a dictatorial government, and its commensurate ‘snoopervision.’ We have too much governmental snooping into our personal and private lives as it is.
“Finding out what graduates have accomplished over many years is the province of alumni associations, and friends who happen to meet one another in social settings. They need no Social Security numbers to find out what graduates have done with their lives,” Allison said. “It is a social measure, gathered as requests by fellow graduates as a matter of general interest. Of course, schools, colleges, and universities are interested in learning how effective their teaching has been, or was, but such gathering of information is not demanded. That is the way it should continue.”
Allison said she doesn’t believe that computers are as secure as others suggest.
“I scoff at the claims that the sites upon which such information is stored is in the utmost of secure situations. That [computer] is a manmade entity. What one man invents, devises, or develops can be, likewise, invented, devised, and/or developed by another to the detriment of others if breaching occurs,” she said. “News reports in the various media have given frequent reports of breaches to the hilt. No one can miss all those news reports. It makes me wonder, ‘How in the world should the perpetrators of such a demand not be cognizant of that reality? And yet, still come up with legislation demanding that students’ most personal information be turned over to an organization which has no business asking for it in the first place?’ I am very much against this intrusion.”
Several school units throughout the state have passed a similar resolution encouraging parents not to provide the requested information.
However, if parents choose to supply their children’s Social Security numbers, they can fill out the consent form which accompanies the letter and resolution, and either mail or hand deliver the form to their child’s principal.
Editor’s Note: The Maine Department of Education announced Sept. 28 that it is taking several immediate steps to strengthen public confidence in its student and staff data information systems. These include an independent review of the security of these systems, and a decision to delay submission of student Social Security numbers to the state until after they have had a chance to review the security report. The steps are being taken as the voluntary collection of student Social Security numbers has become controversial in some Maine communities as privacy advocates have expressed concerns about the security of the information and because the Department learned in the past week of an error within a secondary data system not connected to the collection of student information.
