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As an educator for over thirty years, the name "Curriculum Associates" was well known to me. The company has been around since 1969 and says, on its website:
For more than 50 years, our work has evolved alongside classrooms—beginning with print materials designed to support students who needed extra help. As standards became clearer and classrooms more complex, educators needed faster, more precise insight into student learning.
Technology helped make that possible, not as a replacement for teaching, but as a way to better understand and support each student in real time.
The technology that Curriculum Associates talks about is a program called "I-ready." That program is currently the subject of a lawsuit M.C. v. Curriculum Associates. Here is a link to the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts:
i-Ready is a student collection platform used in school district across the United States. In Maryland, confirmed users are Anne Arundel, Dorchester, Harford, and Wicomico County Public Schools. There are possibly others, but since the State of Maryland does not require school systems to disclose publicly vendors such as i-Ready, it is difficult to determine. It is entirely possible that individual schools use it as well. Parents should ask their local administration.
Plaintiffs in the case are students in California who claim that the Curriculum Associates student data collection platform, i-Ready. The students are represented by their parents who claim that the company collects data such as names, student IDs, grade levels, responses to academic questions, and IP addresses, and shares that data with third-party service providers without direct parental consent. Lawsuit Targets i-Ready Maker Over Student Data Privacy Concerns - The Educators Room
In doing so, plaintiffs alleged that Curriculum Associates violated federal and state laws: the Federal Wiretap Act, the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA), and the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act. The plaintiffs also make claims of negligence and unjust enrichment.
Information about students is allegedly being shared with Google and other third party vendors.
Curriculum Associates denied the claims and have asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed. The company asserts that they followed federal guidelines and complied with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).
Curriculum Associates filed for dismissal. They state that their company is not committing illegal wiretapping since they are the ones communicating with their clients and vendors. They also claim that information sent to third party vendors who host, do analysis, and tech support is not a violation of student/family privacy.
As the Easton Gazette wrote earlier this month, the tug of war between technology and privacy in education is ongoing, particularly as artificial intelligence is being played out in the public square. While many advocate for the advances and ease of information gathering provided by AI, others vehemently oppose exposing students to what could be invasions of privacy which could happen with artificial intelligence. The article shares a data leak story about the PowerSchool platform among other AI concerns:
AI In U.S. Classrooms; Helpful Or Disastrous? - The Easton Gazette
This case could be one of many to come regarding education technology and whether it is a threat to student/family privacy.
For more on i-Ready:
i-Ready Learning | Curriculum for K-12 Classrooms
i-Ready Diagnostic | Dorchester County Public Schools
Some of the information in this article comes from THE EDUCATORS ROOM Homepage - The Educators Room
