Does SB-1341 prohibit educational research entirely?

Question

The text of SB-1341 bill (just introduce to the US Senate) is available here.

Summary

As far as I understand it, if this bill were to pass, researchers would be unable to connect student-level data to any other outcomes (e.g., academic, social, etc.). Student-level data can be test scores and survey data about any number of topics (e.g., learning strategies, student mindsets, etc.). The bill would also prohibit collecting video or audio data, which can be helpful for identifying important aspects of teaching behaviors, student-teacher interactions, student interactions with peers in small group learning formats, and so on. It also appears to restrict research based on standardized test results.

Basically, the bill seeks to severely restrict educational research.

My question:

Would this bill prohibit educational research entirely?

Answer 1

From my reading of the bill, and the manner in which it would amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the changes do not prevent educational research, but rather, ensures that constraints are in place to prevent the identification of individual students as a result of that research. It also requires a student's parents to consent to such research and/or video monitoring.

The data is required to be aggregated prior to any kind of public release, and this is already common practice in most research programs.