The classroom as a public data trust
A pilot program gives families more control over learning records while researchers ask for broader access.
Hands up: the pilot school where families hold the keys to the records.
Every quiz, absence and reading level in this school flows into a data trust — a legal structure that holds children's learning records for their benefit, not for whoever built the software. Parents sit on its board. Researchers apply to it like applying for a grant.
The model flips the usual arrangement. Instead of schools signing away data in procurement contracts nobody reads, the trust sets the terms: what is collected, who may ask for it, and what happens when the answer is no.
Consent you can actually use
Families get a plain-language dashboard: everything held, every access request, every decision. They can approve a literacy study and refuse a marketing survey with the same two taps. Take-up surprised the organisers — four in five families actively manage their settings rather than accepting defaults.
Researchers queue politely
The research community, initially wary, has come around: trust-held data arrives cleaner, better documented and ethically cleared, which means studies start months earlier. The queue now includes three universities and one very patient curriculum publisher.
Key points
- Learning records held by a trust governed with parents
- Four in five families actively manage consent settings
- Researchers apply for access; approvals come with conditions
Twelve more schools join the trust next term. The founders' advice to them is short: start with the parents, write everything in plain language, and never collect a data point you can't explain to a ten-year-old.
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