Work by Matthew Stone

Nov. 11, 2010

New federal grants are funding the development of data systems that rely on collecting students’ Social Security numbers, even as the future of Maine’s law requiring collection of those numbers is uncertain.

The U.S. Labor Department this week awarded the Maine Department of Labor $1 million to allow state officials to continue work on unifying state databases that track work force, public school, higher education and job training information.

“This is all going to contribute to what I think will become one of the most comprehensive longitudinal data systems in the country,” said John Dorrer, director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information at the state Department of Labor.

The $1 million award is one of 13 the U.S. Department of Labor gave out to states, totaling $12.2 million. Other states receiving money are Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
The award is the second federal grant Maine has received in six months to support development of the state’s longitudinal data system. The Maine Department of Education received a $7.3 million award in May.

Longitudinal data systems — which proponents say allow researchers and education officials to determine the effectiveness of particular academic and job training programs by assessing their graduates’ success in the workplace — have been a top education reform priority of the Obama administration.

The administration’s signature Race to the Top education reform competition, for example, rated states’ applications based in part on their plans for developing such data systems.

“I think when we build this and finally have this all come together,” Dorrer said, “we’ll be able to, in as comprehensive a way as possible, take a look at the relationship between work force outcomes and education and training.”

The objective is to aggregate student data, Dorrer said — not to track individual students.

But the mechanism state officials will have for making those connections — students’ Social Security numbers — is in doubt.

A number of school boards passed resolutions throughout the summer calling for a repeal of the law requiring that their schools collect Social Security numbers. Some schools sent notices to parents discouraging them from sharing their children’s Social Security numbers.

And the Maine Department of Education put the collection on hold in late September after a system error allowed a school technology director to see the Social Security numbers of other school districts’ employees.

The department is awaiting the outcome of an outside security review before it moves ahead.

On the political front, Gov.-elect Paul LePage has said he’s opposed to collecting students’ Social Security numbers and at least one state lawmaker, Rep. Matt Peterson, D-Rumford, has filed a preliminary bill request seeking to outlaw Social Security numbers’ collection.

“The Department of Education made a case for the collection of this data, but the case seems much less compelling to some policy makers now that the implementation phase has been reached,” Peterson said in October.

Dorrer said the privacy concerns that have been raised about the longitudinal data program are “very real and genuine,” but the Social Security number is key to connecting education and workforce data. Private and public sector workers, after all, submit their Social Security numbers to employers.

“I think it’s good that we have the debate,” he said. “I hope it leads to strengthening data systems as opposed to walking away from it entirely.”

Bill Hurwitch, the data system project director at the Maine Department of Education, said education officials are continuing to develop the data system under the assumption that Social Security numbers will be used.

If the law is repealed, he said, “it’s not going to stop us from working with the Department of Labor.” Using the Social Security number “just facilitates” the collaboration, Hurwitch said.

Dorrer said those at work on linking data systems will weigh other options for tracking students.

“There may be other kinds of options on the table,” he said. “This will cause all of us to think very seriously and deeply about, how do we do this and protect the confidentiality of all those involved?”

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com

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