This article continues a series exploring data use, misuse, and governance in K–12 education. The Student Data Principles—originally developed by CoSN and the Data Quality Campaign in 2014 is still a critical set of tenets to help guide educational decision-makers. Each installment will present the principles, offer current insights, pose key questions for leaders, and suggest practical steps districts can take to strengthen their data governance practices.

Why Revisit the Student Data Principles?

The Student Data Principles, despite being over a decade old, are still highly relevant in today’s rapidly evolving EdTech landscape. Current innovations, such as generative AI, cloud platforms, and advanced analytics, represent new ways of collecting and utilizing data. Therefore, robust data governance is evermore crucial.

So far, we have covered these foundational Principles:

  • Student data should be used to further and support student learning and success.
  • Student data is most powerful when used for continuous improvement and personalizing student learning.
  • Student data should be used as a tool for informing, engaging, and empowering students, families, teachers, and school system leaders.
  • Students, families, and educators should have timely access to information collected about the student.
  • Student data should be used to inform—and not replace—the professional judgment of educators.

These tenets anchor a broader vision for responsible data use, prioritizing transparency, deep partnership, and educators’ vital role in data interpretation.

Now, we look at the next two Principles.

  • Students’ personal information should only be shared, under terms or agreement, with service providers for legitimate educational purposes; otherwise the consent to share must be given by a parent, guardian, or a student, if that student is over 18. School systems should have policies for overseeing this process, which include support and guidance for teachers.
  • Educational institutions, and their contracted service providers with access to student data, including researchers, should have clear, publicly available rules and guidelines for how they collect, use, safeguard, and destroy data.

Key Questions for Reflection

The two additional principles get to the heart of a robust K-12 data governance program. They get to the core of the acronyms: COPPA and FERPA, and implore you to look at your policies around data sharing. To ensure that you’re doing right by your community, ask these questions:

  • Are you familiar with your district’s policies on directory information? What’s more, are you training your administrators and administrative assistants on that policy?
  • How are you handling your FERPA Notifications? Is it clear to parents?
  • Critically, has your district leadership revisited the definition of a “School Official”?

These reflections remind us that effective data governance is about best practice rooted in federal law.

Action Steps for Leaders

To align your district’s work with the Principles, consider the following:

  • Practice data minimization: audit your access levels in your SIS; reduce the data elements shared with EdTech vendors to what is required, and investigate Data Loss Protection tools.
  • Develop your Professionals: Ongoing, job-embedded training is important for all your staff – think coaches, after hours program workers, and of course teachers. At the bare minimum, staff need to be able to identify who to go to in their districts for clarification around data privacy. Commit yourself to ongoing learning through CoSN.
  • Network, network, network. Talk with your colleagues from other districts and shamelessly “borrow” practices working for them. At a state level, make sure you are staying current with ETLA and the Student Data Privacy Consortium. Finally, follow CoSN’s updates; while FERPA is 50 years old, the interpretations of it continue to evolve.

These steps help leaders move beyond compliance toward a deeper, more systemic approach to data use.

Closing Thought

Data should serve to empower students, inform practice, and strengthen the teaching and learning process. Like all tools, it needs to be carefully handled by trained practitioners.

Author: Mike Porter, Data Privacy and Accessibility Strategist, EdTech Leaders Alliance (CO)
Originally published in the Bytes and Insights November 27, 2025, Learn21’s Weekly EdTech Update

Published on December 17, 2025

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