Dive Brief:

• Common Sense Media is teaming up with 20 districts across the country to create a privacy and safety rubric, which can then be applied to choosing and downloading education apps. 
• Houston Independent School District first started to create a rubric a year ago, but decided to collaborate with Common Sense Media to eliminate redundancy among multiple districts all in search of secure environments. 
• The rubric considers privacy, security, safety and social media, advertising and consumerism, and legal compliance with federal acts FERPA and COPPA.

Dive Insight:

The purpose of this joint venture is to link school districts and vendors as they sort out issues around student data. The app creator goes through the rubric and then Common Sense Media confirms the findings of the app creator. The scores are then posted on Common Sense Media's Graphite platform for participating districts to review.