The debate over a set of school standards known as the Common Core has sparked bipartisan concerns about student privacy.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher reports, one lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban school tests that collect students’ personal information.
That’s pretty much anything other than a student’s name and student ID. Republican state Representative Tim Kelly’s bill would also ban tests that collect what’s known as biometric data. He says that could include technologies that track students’ eye movements and heart rates during a test.
Kelly worries third party vendors could get hold of that data and use it for marketing or other things.
“And I don’t think that that’s quite what we have in mind when we sit a child down to take a test,” he says.
Michigan education officials say they will not allow student data to be collected and used by the federal government or other outside entities.