PARCC & Smarter Balanced Participating State Chiefs Tell USDE Hands Off of Student Data

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The chief state school officers in states participating in the two common assessment consortia, PARCC and Smarter Balance notified USDE January 23 that states will not be sharing “personally identifiable information about k-12 students with the USDE or any federal agency.”  The letter, signed by 33 state chiefs, included New Jersey’s own Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf.

Citing concerns raised over the last several months about whether states’ transition to the consortia assessments will create new requirements for states to provide student information to the USED or other agency,  the letter goes on to state that the federal government is note the federal prohibition on the establishment of a student-level database that would contain assessment data for every student.

The letter indicates that states will continue to provide USED with school-level data from our state assessments as required under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended in 2002. However, states and local education agencies will continue to retain control over student assessment data and will continue to comply with all state and federal laws and regulations with regard to the protection of student privacy. 

The Letter