Hearing of the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee of the House Education and the Workforce Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Polis, Hearing on Exploring Opportunities to Strengthen Education Research While Protecting Student Privacy

Hearing

Thank you, Chairman Rokita, for holding this hearing, and thank you to our
witnesses for being here.
Education research and student data privacy are topics important to my
constituents and me. Both are also bipartisan issues, and members of this
committee have a history of working together to introduce bipartisan legislation to
reauthorize education data and privacy laws. For example, the Success in
Education Through Research Act (SETRA) would have updated current education
research law. And the Student Privacy Protection Act would have updated current
law addressing educational rights and privacy.
Additionally, I, along with my colleague Congressman Messer, introduced the
Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act last Congress, which would create
new privacy protections for students by prohibiting ed tech vendors from selling
student data or using it for commercial gain. The bill also helps reinforce a
bipartisan belief that ed tech providers have a responsibility in guaranteeing
student data is private and secure. I look forward to continuing to work with
Congressman Messer on this issue and re-introducing our student data privacy bill
this year.
While education rights and privacy are essential, and we want to make sure federal
law does not hinder any state efforts that attempt to raise the bar in protecting
student privacy, it is also important to acknowledge and support the role education
research plays in helping achieve equity of opportunity amongst all students.
Reliable de-identified data plays a constructive role in identifying gaps in public
education, and longitudinal data systems help state and local leaders identify
strategies for intervention and improvement of poorly performing schools.
The importance of data is even more crucial as states begin to implement the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which still ensures schools and districts are held
accountable for the education they provide to their students even though states
have broader flexibilities and responsibilities under the law. ESSA also contains an
important privacy safeguard by requiring states to set a minimum sample size for
reporting disaggregated group-level data. Commonly referred to as the "n-size;"
the statute requires states to ensure that the minimum number does not reveal any
personally identifiable information.
One of the challenges I look forward to addressing in this hearing is the need to
strike a balance between student data privacy laws with strong protections, while
still allowing students, teachers, districts, and families to benefit from research
findings, state data systems, and the promise of ed tech innovations, like
personalized learning platforms.
Thank you again to the witnesses for participating in this hearing, and I look
forward to your testimony.

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