The United State government has been collecting information on children for many years. States were given money to support the educational system but had to collect and disseminate data to the federal government in return for the money. The United States is not the only country collecting data on children. When I say children, I mean persons from kindergarten through post graduate studies. Data collection starts in pre-kindergarten and continues as long as the person is in school.
“When Michigan representatives agreed to accept State Fiscal Stabilization Fund dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, they also agreed to four education assurances. One of these assurances is that the state of Michigan will connect preschool through postsecondary (P-20) education data into the labor force to evaluate effectiveness of public education at preparing students for postsecondary education and the workforce. Connecting P-20 data requires that the student Unique Identification Codes assigned and maintained by the Center for Educational Performance and Information be exchanged among institutions and used at all education levels. To fulfill these requirements, Michigan must collect and store each student’s academic record in a data application for analysis. The application is called the MSDS. The collection of these data for IHEs is the STARR. The data collected have been developed into reports that are being published on the MI School Data site. This document is meant to serve as a guide for the STARR Collection. It is separated into sections, which cover the collection information, characteristic descriptions and appendix documents. Within this text, we will identify changes on the following table.” https://www.michigan.gov/documents/cepi/STARR_Data_Manual_736324_7.pdf
In Michigan, the collection oversight resides with CEPI Center of Education Performance and Information. Information is collected and maintained by MSDS Data Collections (Michigan Student Data System.)
“MSDS aligns individual data collections with state and federal program requirements. A summary of data components and their corresponding collections is available in the Collection Component Matrices below, under "Technical Materials."” https://www.michigan.gov/cepi/0,4546,7-113-986_50502---,00.html
“MSDS Early Childhood Collection
Early Childhood Collections are used to report specific programs in which early childhood students are participating. Data submitted in the Fall Early Childhood Collection are used with other MSDS data to report fall preschool student headcounts. The Michigan Department of Education plans to use the Great Start Readiness data reported in the spring collection. Data collected in the early childhood collections are also reported to the U.S. Department of Education.
In each early childhood collection, you should report any child who received program services during the reporting period. We encourage you to report all children, but you are only required to report children participating in the Great Start Readiness Program, GSRP/Head Start Blend, Sec. 32p Early Childhood Block Grant, or Section 32p(4) Home Visitation programs. Do not report Early On® students in this collection.”
“It is a federal expectation that children participating in a Head Start, Early Head Start or Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership program be reported. MDE’s Office of Great Start encourages you to report students participating in any other early childhood programs to assist in longitudinal program evaluations, although this is not a requirement. In addition to the Early Childhood Programs Component, records reported in this collection must include the following components if the children reported are also receiving or eligible for these services: Homeless Demographics Program Participation (immigrant “9130” value only) Seclusion and Restraint SNE Please refer to the applicable component details for additional information. “https://www.michigan.gov/documents/cepi/Collection_Details_SY20-21_687071_7.pdf
Information collected and disseminated may vary depending on the educational level of the child/person. Information collected includes attendance, special education (type of impairment), juvenile detention, discipline, discipline type (serious bodily injury, sexual assault), initial consequence. Early childhood data includes type of program student is enrolled in. Federal poverty level. These are not exhaustive lists.
“Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository Collection
All community colleges and public universities are required to submit each student's academic record to CEPI through the STARR Collection in the Michigan Student Data System. Academic record data include information pertaining to awards, programs, and courses a student has received and/or taken at a community college or university. STARR data are used for reports published on MI School Data.” https://www.michigan.gov/cepi/0,4546,7-113-57943_86896---,00.html
The state of Michigan is not the only state collecting and disseminating this data.
The National Student Clearinghouse which facilitates the transmission of student data to the Federal Government just announced a new partnership. The National Student Clearinghouse and AstrumU today announced a new innovation pilot designed to help schools and learners better understand how postsecondary education transcripts and records connect to outcomes in the workforce.
“Over the next year, the National Student Clearinghouse — which works with more than 3,600 colleges and universities — will evaluate AstrumU’s technology and how it can support data exchange initiatives for higher ed. The two companies have established a pilot to look for opportunities to relieve data exchange constraints and provide improved access to trusted data and insights for institutions and learners. The Clearinghouse and AstrumU expect to leverage insights from the pilot to further serve the education community to identify where machine learning can be leveraged to streamline the exchange of learner information.” https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/nscblog/national-student-clearinghouse-launches-new-pilot-to-map-student-transcripts-to-employer-verified-skill-sets/
“AstrumU helps institutions and lifelong learners quantify their return on education investment in order to drive enrollment, enhance industry engagement and increase economic mobility. We make personalized learning recommendations to quantify the value of the educational programs for each individual in their Future of Work.
AstrumU is enabling a transparent marketplace for recruiting and talent development based on quantifiable skills from verifiable data. We are identifying learning recommendations to fill skills gaps that allow an individual with a high probability of success to map to in-demand roles.” https://www.astrumu.com/
This exchange of data on individuals is not limited to the United States. The European Union set forth privacy guidelines which are to be enforced with all nations that trade with them. “REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)” https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1552662547490&uri=CELEX%3A32016R0679
The following statement is troubling “(4) The processing of personal data should be designed to serve mankind. The right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right; it must be considered in relation to its function in society and be balanced against other fundamental rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality. This Regulation respects all fundamental rights and observes the freedoms and principles recognised in the Charter as enshrined in the Treaties, in particular the respect for private and family life, home and communications, the protection of personal data, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom to conduct a business, the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, and cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.” https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1552662547490&uri=CELEX%3A32016R0679
This certainly gives wiggle room for dissemination of personal data that could potentially be used by a one world order.
There are other databases that are anxious to share individual data throughout the world.
The question is do you have privacy in your life? Do you want the world to have access to information about you?
Information about you is already residing on multiple servers.
Picture Annelies Genyen/Unsplash