Ahead of next week’s administration of the PSAT exam in schools around the state, nine Illinois state legislators are asking Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate the business practices of a major state vendor, the College Board, the standardized test maker that sells the SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement exams.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2019
CONTACT Cassie Creswell
Illinois Families for Public Schools
773-916-7794
IL LEGISLATORS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL:
INVESTIGATE THE COLLEGE BOARD’S SALE OF STUDENT DATA
Ahead of next week’s administration of the PSAT exam in schools around the state, nine Illinois state legislators are asking Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate the business practices of a major state vendor, the College Board, the standardized test maker that sells the SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement exams.
The lawmakers sent a letter to AG Raoul Thursday, October 10th signed by: Senators Cristina Castro, Robert Martwick, Laura Murphy and Robert Peters and Representatives Robyn Gabel, Will Guzzardi, Lindsey LaPointe, Aarón Ortíz and Ann Williams.
The letter explains that the College Board has been selling data collected from Illinois public school students who take the College Board’s exams and that such sales are illegal under Illinois law.
Since 2017, Illinois has prohibited vendors from selling or renting the personal information of students collected in schools under the Student Online Privacy Protection Act (SOPPA), an Illinois state law. In addition to violating SOPPA, in many cases the data sales may also be violating Illinois’ Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act, which bars the sale of data of a child under 16 without parental consent.
The College Board’s data sales were reported on last year by the New York Times, and the US Department of Education has warned school districts and state education agencies about the issues surrounding these sales. At an IL Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this spring, a representative of the College Board, Todd Iverson, confirmed that the College Board is selling Illinois' student data—at the time for $.45 per student record.
This summer, Illinois Families for Public Schools, a public school parent advocacy group began assisting parents with submitting consumer fraud complaints to the Attorney General’s office. Parents and students are not informed of the College Board’s data sales, and in some cases are explicitly told that the College Board does not sell data. Parents are asking for the AG to bar the College Board from future sales of Illinois student data and to prevent the College Board from collecting or redisclosing student data without written, informed consent from a parent for any student under 18.
“My child was told that participating in the College Board’s Student Search Service survey was for his benefit. Neither of us knew the answers he provided were for sale. As a parent, I have the responsibility and the right to control what happens to my child’s personal data. And as a taxpayer, I don’t understand why the College Board needs to make money off this data. Aren’t they already being paid for the tests themselves?,” asked Chicago parent Gina Silva, who filed a complaint about the data sales with the IL AG.
The College Board does millions of dollars of business every year in Illinois with state and local governments. They currently have a $29 million contract with the IL State Board of Education for the SAT and PSAT tests. Last year the state paid more than $2 million to cover the fees for the AP tests for low-income students. The state’s largest school district, Chicago Public Schools, has an $8.35 million contract with the College Board. In addition, Illinois public institutions of higher education are some of the buyers of the data from the College Board.
Since spring of 2018, the IL State Board of Education has mandated the administration of the SAT to all high school juniors to fulfill requirements of federal school accountability law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. The SAT is now a requirement to receive a diploma from a public high school in Illinois. Last year the state began mandating the PSAT in 9th and 10th grade too. Many schools administer the PSAT/NMSQT in the fall of 11th grade as well. The College Board’s Advanced Placement tests also now play a role in Illinois’ school rating system.
Letter Content
10 October 2019
Dear Attorney General Raoul:
We are writing you to urge you to investigate the business practices of the College Board. The College Board is a state vendor with a $9,736,471.25 million annual contract with the IL State Board of Education through June 2021. In addition, it does millions of dollars in business with local school districts, including an $8.35 million contract with Chicago Public Schools. And in FY2019, the organization was the recipient of more than $2 million from the state to cover Advanced Placement exam fees for low-income students.
The College Board is also a vendor for most public institutions of higher education in Illinois, which purchase data about potential students in order for recruitment and admissions purposes.
The data sold by the College Board has been the subject of investigative reporting by the New York Times (July 29, 2018: “For Sale: Survey Data on Millions of High School Students”). In addition, in May of 2018, the US Department of Education issued guidance specifically about the issues surrounding these sales for local and state education agencies.
At an Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on May 14, 2019 on HB3606, a representative of the College Board, Todd Iverson, testified about this practice and confirmed that the College Board is selling Illinois' student data for $.45 per student.
Although the College Board asks students for their consent (including those under age 18) for disclosing their data to colleges, universities and scholarship providers, they do not inform either students or parents that they will be providing the data to these organizations in exchange for a monetary payment.
As such, we are concerned that these data sales may be in violation of two state laws:
• the Student Online Privacy Protection Act, which bars operators from any sale or rent of student data; and
• the Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act, which bars sale of data of children under 16 without parental consent.
As the recipient of millions of taxpayer dollars in Illinois each year and as the collector and custodian of highly sensitive personal data—data which can directly determine the educational and job opportunities available to Illinois children, the College Board should be subject to the highest scrutiny in whether its business practices are meeting both the spirit and the letter of the laws of our state.
We urge you to initiate a thorough investigation of how the College Board is conducting business in Illinois.
Sincerely,
Senator Cristina Castro
Senator Robert Martwick
Senator Laura Murphy
Senator Robert Peters
Representative Robyn Gabel
Representative Will Guzzardi
Representative Lindsey LaPointe
Representative Aaron Ortiz
Representative Ann Williams
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