Notes on P20 Council Meeting July 21, 2011 Several concerning issues surrounding the P20 Council Meeting

for July 21st: 1. Meeting was moved from 419C to 511A without notice via the Secretary of State s website a. Checked notices THAT afternoon and no change had been made 2. Introduced Deborah Anderson, Executive Director of SmartStart a. Introduced as needing to have a seat at the table to represent Early Childhood b. She was not appointed by the governor as were the other members c. Concerning because the NEXT round of RTT has an early childhood component i. It seems as though she s not only being invited to serve in order to bring PreK data to the table , but make it possible to apply for an RTT2 grant for Early Childhood 3. Neither Representative Earl Sears nor Senator Clark Jolly were at the meeting a. This voids the voice of the people on the committee. b. Neither had either been at the previous meeting (held quarterly) 4. Superintendent Janet Baressi was not at the meeting. a. She sent John Kramen, previously of Achieve, now hired by the SDE. b. John Kramen presented about how to structure the data to get a SLDSS State Longitudinal Data System grant. c. P20 Council is following the national P20 blueprint to design the system to fit the directives of the SLDS grant. d. John Kraman s Power Point presentation already covered everything on the agenda that was to be discussed. 5. Many decisions about how the board was to operate were made at the meeting a. Without taxpayer representation, or attendance on the Council, this is governance by committee or taxation without representation. b. This situation is governance by bureaucracy. 6. A decision was made to launch two other task forces out of the Council a. P20 Data Governance Committee and P20 Data Stewards Work Group b. Would they be subject to open meeting laws? i. The P20 Council doesn t post their meeting s minutes on their website. ii. The P20 Council doesn t even post ALL their agenda s on their website. c. Would new members be reimbursed expenses or otherwise paid via taxpayer funds? d. GROWING GOVERNMENT in a very large way. 7. Though attending members admitted have initial matches of 80% or better linking databases between Higher Ed and other agencies such as the SDE and Career Tech, they contend the Council is still necessary. Why? Is this data sharing not enough? 8. During the course of the meeting, student data identifiers were discussed as being unique student identifiers but also social security numbers. a. The public has been told in numerous places on the Data Quality Campaign website that DQC will collect data via a unique student identifier , however both in the meeting and in the newly released data collection guidelines, social security numbers will still be collected. b. Providing of social security numbers is considered voluntary, but it is only voluntarily given if the parents are educated enough to understand what they are giving away.

9. During the meeting, the discussion was forwarded by one member of the group, that this database needed be created so that it could evolve as the need for student data expanded. a. According to the DQC, data points such as voting status , birthmarks , blood type are already fair game for data collection. In fact, Alex Petit made a comment about data collection to include, social security number and eye color, or whatever you re going to collect . b. How far does the database need to EVOLVE? How much data needs to be taken under the auspices of simply graduating kids from high school? c. Kentucky P20 Council website states that their present data collection sets are basic, but will be evolving into collecting more extensive data such as student financial aid and employment and earnings data. i. System will receive one time federal funding to set up the basics, but the state will then be left holding the bag. ii. Consequently, council members will be asking legislators for legislation to provide long term funding (sustainability). d. Members of Oklahoma s P20 Council were discussing the same issues as Kentucky i. Invalidates the argument that this is NOT a federalization of data (as with the Core Curriculum State Standards initiative to which data collection is linked in RTT) ii. Members discussed asking legislators for 1. Legislation to consolidate early ed data 2. To attach early ed to the P20 Council 3. And to track other data to tell where students went who did NOT enter higher ed 10. Several admissions were made during the meeting. a. Data could be provided to those persons or organizations classified as researchers. i. Marion Dilbeck admitted that those they grant access just have to agree not to pass on the data and that there is no mechanism for enforcement of privacy standards. b. Data will be shared among non-education agencies such as DHS. i. Minutes from April 21st include sharing with Corrections. c. Data sharers will sign a Memorandum of Understanding about the ways in which data will be collected and shared, though there s no oversight or way to determine who is sharing data and how. i. The state of Florida has just been caught selling driver s license data and a judge said it s legal. ii. How and when will data be sold through the P20? iii. With the number of agencies sharing and the variables possible for collection, there is AMPLE room for misuse of data.