Georgia's largest school district has become the latest to receive major recognition in a new way amid growing awareness of the importance of protecting student data privacy.
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a professional association of K-12 educational technology leaders, created its first privacy framework for schools in 2016. Districts can document their work to follow the framework and their progress toward earning the CoSN Trusted Learning Environment (TLE) seal, but fewer than 30 districts have received that certification.
That's because the framework is rigorous and it can take up to two years to meet the standards across all five core practice areas, according to CoSN TLE project director Lynette Atai.
“This is a very time-consuming task, and the one thing technology leaders don't have is time,” she said.
To make the process more manageable, CoSN launched a program this year that allows school districts to earn the TLE Mini-Seal if they meet the association's standards in one of five practice areas that work with student data: leadership, business, data security, professional development, and classroom. Atai said this allows technology leaders to work on one practice area at a time, receive feedback more quickly, and approach their next Mini-Seal application with more knowledge and confidence.
Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), Georgia's largest school district, earned all five mini-seals over time last week, becoming the first district to earn the full TLE seal, according to a CoSN news release. According to Dr. Debbie Durrence, executive director of GCPS data governance, being able to focus on each mini-seal individually has made the process much more manageable.
“The challenge with the full program was that there was a concern that if any one area was not as mature as the others, we might not be successful in the full application,” Durens says. “Mini-SEAL provided an opportunity to explore the areas we are most mature and comfortable with first. We'll have to work through all five, but we'll be able to learn from each process along the way.”
In addition to the mini-seal program, the option to earn the full TLE seal still exists: In fact, Ector County Independent School District became the ninth school system in Texas to achieve full certification last week, CoSN announced.
To continue building momentum toward rigorous privacy protections for student data and to support schools in addressing this important issue, Atai said CoSN will be launching two new initiatives related to the TLE Seal this fall.
The first is a self-paced online course that school districts can use as an in-depth resource as they address any of the five core areas of the CoSN Privacy Framework. The second is the State Subscription Program, where CoSN helps school districts across the state improve privacy protections for student data as they work to earn the TLE Seal.
“We're trying to provide that guidance and support at scale and in a way that's accessible to all districts,” Atai said.
The cost to apply for the full TLE Seal ranges from $100 to $400 depending on the district’s size and CoSN membership status. The cost to apply for the TLE Mini Seal is $50.
In return, Atai said, the district will receive feedback on its application, including resources for improvement and a report showing how its score compares to the combined scores of existing TLE Seal recipients.
Certificate recipients must be recertified every two years at a cost of $50, a process that requires districts to provide documentation and support for changed or improved practices.