Marana Unified approves data-sharing agreement with ASU Helios for longitudinal student study

The Marana Unified School District governing board on an apparent voice vote approved a statement of work to share de-identified student records with the Arizona Board of Regents and Arizona State UniversityHelios Decision Center for Educational Excellence to support a longitudinal study called VISTA.

The VISTA project, presented by Miss Rudy, would allow the district to provide de-identified data so researchers can examine how district students move from middle school to high school and postsecondary education, which classes and majors they choose, and how district programs affect those trajectories.

Miss Rudy said the study would help the district "evaluate the quality and effectiveness of our programs" and identify district and out-of-district practices associated with student success. "No personal information involving students...would not be able to be tracked back to an individual student," she told the board when asked to clarify what "de-identified" meant.

A board member pointed to language in the draft agreement that appears to allow certain confidential data and asked whether personally identifiable information would be shared. Miss Rudy replied that the district would not send personally identifiable information and that any directory information released would follow FERPA rules and exclude students whose parents have opted out.

The motion to approve the statement of work carried with a voice vote; trustees gave no recorded roll-call vote in the public transcript.

The board packet and the presenter described VISTA as a research collaboration intended to provide longitudinal visualizations and analysis of student academic trajectories. The agreement submitted to the board includes a paragraph listing categories of confidential data; the presenter said that the districtwould not disclose data that could be used to re-identify individual students, and that any directory information disclosure would follow FERPA opt-out rules.

The district did not provide costs or a timeline for the ASU Helios project during the public presentation, and no outside speaker opposed the motion during the meeting.

The board approved the statement of work to proceed; staff indicated follow-up work would include data preparation under the terms described in the agreement and FERPA constraints.