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Strategic Objective

Privacy

Strategic Objective

Privacy

Provide all education stakeholders, from early childhood to adult learning, with technical assistance and guidance to help them protect student privacy while effectively managing and using student information.

Lead Office: Office of Management

Themes:

No Data Available

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Overview
Progress Update

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Progress Update

Educational institutions rely on student data to improve decision-making, to personalize learning, and to target additional support to at-risk students, and the Department itself relies on student data for key administration initiatives. Increases in the collection and use of student data, however, have fueled public concern about student privacy, and important gains are at risk due to public concern. Throughout FY 2015, student privacy was an extremely hot topic and as a result the Department had to begin, to some degree, pulling away from our long term improvement plans to respond to immediate Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and privacy issues providing substantial, recurring technical assistance to the Hill on dozens of proposed bills dealing with student privacy. In addition, the Department responded to public and congressional criticism over the privacy of students’ medical treatment records in the wake of a recent sexual assault case by issuing a draft Dear Colleague letter on the protection of student privacy in campus medical records. The Department was publicly commended for publishing the letter in draft format, to obtain public input before finalizing it in FY 2016.

While adjusting to these changing demands, there has been consistent, steady improvement in office metrics specific to privacy since we began tracking these numbers about two years ago. Our strategy has been to rely when appropriate on contractor resources, both within the office and from the contractors that staff the PTAC. These efforts in addressing the high degree of public interest in student privacy included the implementation of a new more user-friendly website, and the release of our Model Terms of Service guidance and teacher training video. Another strategy that continues to pay off is increased coordination with other Department offices engaged in privacy technical assistance as the Department expanded PTAC’s work to include early childhood programs, particularly through the creation of new online resource page that curates a vast array of technical assistance resources on the privacy and security of early childhood (EC) data from across the Department’s disparate EC technical assistance centers. Through PTAC and the Department’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO), the Department conducted a number of targeted technical assistance activities on early childhood issues, including a site visits, webinars, and workshops and provided extensive internal technical assistance on privacy issues relating to the Preschool Development Grants program. As a result of this focus on efficiencies and resource utilization, using metrics to improve performance and relying on a case tracking system that manages workload and content for both our contractor and federal staff, the average time to respond to cases was under 5 days, meeting the Department’s FY 2015 performance target of by having an average turnaround time of less than 8 days.

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

Continuous Improvement of the U.S. Education System

Statement:

Enhance the education system’s ability to continuously improve through better and more widespread use of data, research and evaluation, evidence, transparency, innovation, and technology.

Strategic Objectives

Data Systems and Transparency

Statement:

Facilitate the development of interoperable longitudinal data systems for early learning through employment to enable data-driven, transparent decision-making by increasing access to timely, reliable, and high-value data.

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Privacy

Statement:

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Research, Evaluation, and Use of Evidence

Statement:

Invest in research and evaluation that builds evidence for education improvement; communicate findings effectively; and drive the use of evidence in decision-making by internal and external stakeholders.

Description:No Data Available

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Technology and Innovation

Statement:

Accelerate the development and broad adoption of new, effective programs, processes, and strategies, including education technology.

Description:

To achieve the president’s 2020 college attainment goal, the nation’s education system will need to graduate many more college-ready students from high school, ensure they have access to postsecondary education, and support them as they complete their degrees—all while facing resource constraints. When other sectors of the economy need to become better, faster, or more productive, they innovate, often relying on technology for help. The education sector is no different, and the need for innovation—and its benefits—spans grade levels, curricular areas, and student needs.

A 21st-century infrastructure that harnesses modern technological advances and provides easy access to high-speed Internet can serve as a platform for greater innovation in education. Accordingly, the Department will continue to focus on ways to improve schools’ technology infrastructure and effective use of technology. It will also continue to work with Congress to establish a new advanced research projects agency for education that will use directed research and development activities to pursue breakthrough technological innovations in teaching and learning.

Technology holds the potential to expand all students’ opportunities to learn, including by supporting personalized learning experiences, providing dynamic digital content, and delivering more meaningful assessments. Technology can also help districts and schools support teachers in becoming more effective and better connected to the tools, resources, and expertise students need and help them meet more rigorous college- and career-ready standards. Technology can also help schools by providing students and school library media specialists with increased access to academic tools and other resource-sharing networks. Technology can also help schools by providing students and school library media specialists with increased access to academic tools and other resource-sharing networks. Technology-enabled instructional and assessment systems will be pivotal to improving student learning and generating data that can be used to continuously improve the education system at all levels. Innovative technology must be matched by innovative educational practices to maximize its potential to improve learning and instruction for all students, and it must be accessible to all students, including students with disabilities. Leadership is essential to ensure that innovative applications are disseminated and brought to scale.

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Agency Priority Goals

FY 14-15: Enable evidence-based decision making

Statement:

By September 30, 2015, the percentage of select new[1] (non-continuation) competitive grant dollars that reward evidence will increase by 70%.

[1] “New competitive grant dollars that reward evidence” includes all dollars awarded based on the existence of at least “evidence of promise” in support of a project, per the framework in the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (34 CFR Part 75). Consideration of such evidence appears through: eligibility threshold (e.g., in the Investing in Innovation program); absolute priority; competitive priority (earning at least one point for it); or selection criteria (earning at least one point for it). The percentage is calculated compared to the total new grant dollars awarded.

Description:

GOAL OVERVIEW

Through its mix of grants, contracts, and internal analytic work, the Department of Education (ED) will support the use of research methods and rigorous study designs that provide evidence that is as robust as possible and fit for the purpose. This goal will track whether ED is increasing its internal capacity to make competitive grant awards based on the existence of (and amount of) evidence in support of projects, where appropriate.

KEY BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES

The process to collect data and track progress against the goal is still under development, and using evidence to award competitive grants entails a shift in culture and capacity building across ED to do it well. Additionally, goal targets are based on reasonable projections about which competitive grant programs may make new awards in this fiscal year, but the actual dollar amount awarded will depend on final appropriations amounts and other funding decisions and trade-offs. Grantees vary in their comfort with and understanding of evaluation and use of evidence, yet ED has limited resources to support grantees in conducting rigorous evaluations that would produce evidence of effectiveness.

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

There is an increasing emphasis among stakeholders on the importance of using evidence to support government program funding decisions, and ED regularly engages the field on this topic. A number of outside organizations have convened experts to discuss how to encourage such decisions. In addition, philanthropic and congressional actors prioritized using evidence to support decision-making and have encouraged the field to do the same. Finally, ED has worked with the National Science Foundation to develop a common evidence framework around which to organize research investments and grants. Indeed, ED is considered a leader on the issue among federal agencies, and external groups are eager for ED to deepen and broaden its efforts.

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