CPS teachers ‘blindsided’ after access to popular classroom software yanked due to new student privacy law
Summary
But at CPS, the way officials have applied the law has meant popular educational tools have been taken away from thousands of students and forced teachers to reinvent their curricula. “We’re depriving hundreds of thousands of students from proven effective, often free resources,” said Jeff Solin, who teaches computer science at Lane Tech High School. Among the software products that violate the law, CPS now says, are programs like Code.org, which is widely used in computer science classes, and Adobe applications used for artistic design and newspaper page layouts. Cassie Creswell, the director of the education advocacy group, Illinois Families for Public Schools, helped author the new data privacy act. Without access at CPS, teachers said they are now scrambling to redesign curricula after they weren’t adequately informed of how the student privacy law might impact the software they can use.