The Ethical Use of Data in Education

This volume brings together experts on various aspects of education to address many of the emerging issues and problems that affect how data are being used or misused in educational contexts. Readers will learn about the importance of using data effectively, responsibly, and ethically to fully understand how cognitive fallacies occur and how they impact decision-making. They will understand how codes of ethics deal with the use of data within education as well as in other disciplines. Chapters provide a landscape view of the regulations that pertain to data use and policies that have emerged, including the impact of accountability on data use and data ethics. The text covers data ethics in local education agencies, professional development, educator preparation, testing programs, and educational technology. Chapter authors recommend steps to improve awareness among educators, stakeholders, and other interested groups and suggest actions that can be taken to enhance educators’ capacity to use data responsibly. A final use case chapter describes the importance of data ethics in terms of equity in schools and includes salient examples of ethical dilemmas, with questions and reflections on how ethics and equity apply to each situation. The conclusion addresses data ethics in terms of professionalism and poses several recommendations that challenge educators to raise awareness of data ethics and integrate them into educational practice.

Book Features:

• Discusses how accountability affects effective data, including the pressure on schools and districts to perform better on test scores or other indicators.
• Outlines ten recommendations for how professional development can incorporate data ethics in practice.
• Reviews the expectations and realities of preparing educators for data literacy, including an example of one teacher education program’s integrated, curriculum-wide approach.
• Considers the role of testing companies in ethical data use, including issues around equity in assessment data.
• Explores how educational technologies, platforms, and applications impact data use.

Ellen B. Mandinach is senior research scientist and director of the Data for Decisions Initiative at WestEd. Edith S. Gummer is the founder of PNWEvaluAnd and former executive director for the Office of Data Strategy at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.

“This timely overview of the current laws and polices also affords the reader a historical context about the arrival of current data regulations. By understanding these foundations, only then can we propose more accurate and applicable strategies to address the current assessment dilemmas in post-pandemic and online environments.”

—Teachers College Record

“This book introduces rich conversations about the ethical use of data in education, traditional and digital. Its relevance will only grow as ubiquitous student data collection, and data exploitation, grow exponentially.”
—Anthony E. Kelly, associate dean for research, George Mason University

“This book couldn’t be more timely. Educators, learners, and other users of education data are grappling with a pandemic that has upended data-collection processes and infrastructure and laid bare the inequities built into the system. Meanwhile, educational institutions find themselves at the center of a renewed emphasis on racial justice, while being inundated with new, technology-based tools that promise a dramatic increase in the provision of data to inform decision-making. The contributors to this volume provide a diversity of expert perspectives about a variety of use cases, highlighting the critical role that ethics must play in helping to ensure that data use will benefit learners and promote equity.”
—Laura Hamilton, associate vice president, research centers, Educational Testing Service

Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Data Ethics: An Introduction 1
Ellen B. Mandinach and Edith S. Gummer

PART I: LANDSCAPE 33

1.  The Landscape of Data Ethics in Education: What Counts as Responsible Data Use 35
Ellen B. Mandinach and Edith S. Gummer

2.  Turning to Data Ethics to Resolve FERPA’s Modern Questions 56
Amelia Vance and Casey Waughn

3.  Policies That Promote Student Data Privacy and Teacher Data Literacy Are Essential for Ethical Data Use 67
Brennan McMahon Parton and Taryn A. Hochleitner

4.  Educational Policy Contexts and the (Un)ethical Use of Data 81
Sharon L. Nichols

PART II: USE CASES 99

5.  The Role of the Classroom, School, and District to Ensure the Ethical Use of Data: It’s More Than Just FERPA 101
Ellen B. Mandinach and Jo Beth Jimerson

6.  The Role of Professional Development in Preparing Educators for Data Ethics 125
Ellen B. Mandinach and Diana Nunnaley

7.  The Role of Educator Preparation Programs to Teach About the Ethical Use of Data 144
Edith S. Gummer, Norman Paul Gibbs, and Sherman Dorn

8.  Data Access, Ethics, and Use in Learning and Navigation Organizations 173
Wayne Camara, Michelle Croft, and Alina von Davier

9.  The Cyclical Effects of Ethical Decisions Involving Big Data and Digital Learning Platforms 198
Edward Dieterle, Beth Holland, and Chris Dede

10.  When Data Use Raises Equity and Ethical Dilemmas in Schools 216
Amanda Datnow, Marie Lockton, and Hayley Weddle

Concluding Thoughts: What Does the Future of Data Ethics Look Like? 233
Ellen B. Mandinach and Edith S. Gummer

About the Contributors 246

Index 249