Portland Public Schools contracts with ed tech company being sued over for-profit student data harvesting
In an email to Portland Public Schools (PPS) employees and partners, the district's Chief of Staff, Deborah Kafoury, today announced a new $1 million investment into high impact tutoring, personalized learning and school-based food pantries. A portion of the investment which comes from The Fund for PPS , a nonprofit that collects and distributes parent-raised funds, will be used to pay the company, IXL Learning, for individualized digital math platform licenses for seven thousand 9th and 10th graders. An issue of concern is that the California-based ed tech firm IXL Learning is currently being sued over collecting and selling children’s personal information without their or their parents’ knowledge or consent. The lawsuit was brought to federal court by three Kansas families of children who have used the company's platforms. They are represented by attorneys with a personal injury law firm and the EdTech Law Center , which works to challenge the exploitative practic...
