The lessons of inBloom

The lessons of inBloom

The well-funded student-data nonprofit InBloom has announced it will shutter after sustained protests by parents and privacy advocates that forced districts to drop its services, reports Ariel Bogle in Slate. InBloom hoped to streamline student information online so teachers could track progress and personalize lessons and learning materials. Yet despite millions in seed funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and collaboration with districts in nine states, the company was unable to reassure parents that student information would be safe with a third-party vendor. Protests and lawsuits in several states caused many districts to pull back, but the most significant blow occurred when the New York state budget bill restricted its Education Department's ability to contract with companies for storing, organizing, or aggregating student information, and demanded inBloom delete all held data. The collapse of inBloom is a blow for the K-12 education-technologies sector generally -- a market that, if calibrated carefully, could benefit schools and students. It's clear legislators on both the federal and state level must strengthen student privacy protections. InBloom's failure is an object lesson in trust-building and accountability for the next company that will surely take its place. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.

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