Dive Brief:

• In a Huffington Post editorial, Data Quality Campaign founder Aimee Rogstad Guidera urges parents to push for access to student data.  
• The article is in response to the negative attention big data companies, like inBloom, have received in recent months regarding the use, or potential for misuse, of student data.  
• Touching on inBloom, Guidera says New York was "on the cusp of providing that crucial parent access" but ultimately lost its advantage when it ended its relationship with the now-shuttered company.  

Dive Insight:

Guidera believes the negativity surrounding big data in education means the general public is not informed enough on the benefits of collecting and measuring student data.  

"The conversation about inBloom in New York and elsewhere shows that we must do more to help the public, and especially parents, understand how increased appropriate access to secure data helps their children succeed," she writes.

Ultimately, Guidera and the public are right. Data is necessary to assess where a child is at and more effectively pinpoint their needs. And data being hosted in ambiguous spaces like the cloud by third-party vendors can also create massive security risks and lead to both hacking and the use of data for advertising. 

Perhaps if the federal government makes good on its plan to change the FERPA and COPPA laws, having companies with similar agendas to inBloom collect data will feel like less of a threat.