Who gets a say in how schools use data?
The Challenge
Schools are increasingly adopting edtech solutions and AI tools to improve learning outcomes, from personalised learning platforms to attendance tracking and behavioural monitoring. For school leaders, these technologies represent a genuine opportunity to better support students, reduce administrative burden, and respond more effectively to individual needs. However, a clear blueprint for getting it right is still missing for most schools.
One of the core governance challenges facing schools is one of alignment. As new AI and data-driven tools become embedded in school life, students, families and teachers often have limited visibility into how data about them is collected, shared or used. This isn’t typically the result of deliberate exclusion, more so that the processes and frameworks to bring the voices of those most affected meaningfully into decision-making just don’t exist yet. For example, when a third-party edtech platform is adopted, there is rarely a clear mechanism for parents to understand what data about their child is shared beyond the school and on what terms. Consent, where it exists at all, is often reduced to a tick-box at the point of sign-up rather than an ongoing, informed relationship between schools, families, and the platforms they use.
When data practices in schools don’t reflect the values, experiences, or priorities of the communities they are meant to serve, the result is an erosion of trust that makes it harder to use data well even when intentions are good. That's precisely the problem the Clinic's student team is working with Educate Ventures to address: not just identifying what's going wrong, but helping to build the participatory frameworks that schools are currently missing.
Our partner
Educate Ventures Research leads the Shape the Future Leaders Coalition, which brings together school leaders, researchers, and innovators to develop ethical, inclusive approaches to AI in education. Their focus includes students with special educational needs and disabilities, and learners from communities that have historically been underserved by the education system.