The National Education Technology Plan discusses how the use of student data is crucial for personalized learning and continuous improvement (see Section 4: Assessment). Acting as the stewards of student data presents educators with several responsibilities. School officials, families, and software developers have to be mindful of how data privacy, confidentiality, and security practices affect students. Schools and other educational institutions should be certain that policies are in place regarding who has access to student data and that students and families understand their rights and responsibilities concerning data collection. Districts should have a policy or procedure for reviewing third party agreements in the terms of service or contract for compliance around use, protection (data security) and destruction of student personally identifiable data.
