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Session 4. Using Pupil Data Ethically and Safely
Objective. Apply simple rules of purpose, minimum, codes, safe storage and fairness to the data you hold, and avoid labelling pupils.
Data that helps you teach can also hurt a child if it is shown, shared or worded carelessly. Pupils cannot say no to the register, and families trust you with what they tell you. This session is not about fear or legal detail. It is about a few calm habits that keep that trust: collect only what you need, use codes, store carefully, speak about skills not people, and tell pupils what you are doing. Most of them take less time than the careless alternative.
Key ideas
Why pupil data needs care
- Personal data is anything that identifies a child: name, marks, attendance, photos, home circumstances. Children cannot choose what is collected about them.
- Uzbekistan has a law on personal data (2019) built on ideas such as a clear purpose, only the data needed, and security. Follow it and your school's own rules; ask the school if unsure.
- Trust is the real stake. If pupils feel watched or shamed by data, they stop being honest in their work.
Five working habits
- Purpose: collect data only to answer a teaching question. Minimum: take only the columns you need.
- Codes: work with P01, P02 ... and keep the code list apart, in a locked drawer or a password-protected file.
- Safe and short: do not send pupil data through open messenger groups; share only with people who need it; delete or destroy working copies when the question is answered.
Fairness: numbers can mislead and label
- A mark describes one test on one day. Do not turn it into 'weak' or 'strong' pupil. Describe skills, not people.
- Absence has many causes: illness, travel, looking after a younger sibling, a long road. Ask before you assume lack of interest.
- Check who is missing from your data (absent pupils, those who left blanks) before you decide that the data speaks for everyone.
Be open with pupils and families
- Tell pupils what you collect and why: 'The exit ticket helps me plan tomorrow; it is not a mark.'
- Share an individual pupil's data only with that pupil and their family, in private, with a next step attached.
- With any outside tool or AI service, remove names and personal details first, or do not use it. Your professional judgement stays with you.
Two ways to keep the same record
Careless record
Easy today, risky later
- Full names on every sheet
- Reasons for absence noted
- Photo sent to a group chat
Careful record
Same purpose, less risk
- Codes P01, P02 ...
- Present, absent or excused only
- Name list kept apart and locked
Asking four questions before you share
Before any data leaves your desk, ask four things. Why: what teaching purpose does this serve? Who: does this person need it to do their job? What: can I send less, for instance codes instead of names, or a class total instead of a list? Where: will it travel by a channel that others can read, forward or store? If you cannot answer the first question in one sentence, do not share. If the answer to the fourth is an open chat group or an online service you do not know, find another way.
Notice that none of these questions needs a law book. They are the everyday form of the same ideas found in data protection rules: a clear purpose, only the data needed, and security. If your school has its own rules, they come first.
Describing skills, not people
Words outlive numbers. A note that says 'Aziz: weak' travels through the year, the next teacher and the family's idea of the child. A note that says 'Aziz: adds fractions with equal denominators; needs practice with unequal ones; improved on Friday' tells the next adult exactly what to do and leaves the child room to change. Describing a skill is also more honest, because a single test never measures a whole person.
The same care applies to what you say aloud. Reading marks in front of the class, comparing named pupils, or calling out the 'last' ones teaches pupils to hide mistakes, which is the opposite of what good data needs.
Examples from the classroom
The wall chart
Scene. Gulnora in Fergana pins a table of Grade 5 spelling scores on the wall, names in order from best to worst, 'to motivate'. After a week three pupils say they have stomach aches on spelling days. She takes it down and replaces it with a class dot plot without names and a private card for each child saying one word they mastered and one to practise.
Insight. Public ranking harms the pupils it claims to motivate; private, specific feedback does the work.
Asking the chatbot
Scene. Jasur wants help deciding who should join a revision group. He types the Grade 9 class list with marks into an online chatbot. A colleague stops him. Together they make a list with codes P01 to P28, remove the names, and Jasur decides himself by looking at the marks on paper. The chatbot, if used at all, is only asked how to run a revision group.
Insight. Names leave the school when typed into outside tools; codes, minimum data and your own judgement are safer.
The absence column
Scene. Malika notes 'family problems' for three absent pupils in a spreadsheet that the whole subject team can open. One of the families finds out and is upset. Malika now records only present, absent or excused, keeps real reasons in her memory for private conversations, and asks the school counsellor for help when she is worried.
Insight. Record the minimum the teaching question needs; sensitive reasons belong in conversation and with the right support person.
Common pitfalls
- Sharing a whole table when the receiver needs only one column or a class total.
- Keeping the name list and the working sheet in the same unlocked place.
- Writing a label such as 'weak' or 'lazy' based on one result.
- Assuming the reason for an absence or a low mark without asking the pupil or family.
OK, Change It, or Stop
- In groups of four (15 min): sort the eight scenario cards in the Activity Kit into three piles: OK, OK with changes, and Not OK. Give a one-line reason for each.
- In the same groups (10 min): choose one Not OK card and rewrite it so that the teacher still reaches the teaching goal without the harm.
- Alone (15 min): in the Activity Kit is a register extract with names and a reason column. Make a safe working copy: codes, only the columns needed to see who needs help, and a plan for where the code list is kept.
- Classroom action (5 min, plan now): decide what you will tell pupils about the data you collect.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which card did your group argue about most, and why?
- What did you remove from the register extract and what did you keep? How did you decide?
- What is one data habit in your school that should change?
Reflect
- Where do my pupils' names and marks sit right now, and who can see them?
- Have I ever used a word for a pupil that a number could not justify?
- What would a parent think if they saw my records?
Try it tomorrow
- Take one table you keep, replace names with codes and move the name list to a locked place.
- Before sending any pupil data to anyone, ask the four questions: why, who, what, where.
- Rewrite one label in your notes as a skill and a next step.
Further reading and links
Collect for a purpose, keep the minimum, use codes, store safely, never label, and tell pupils what you do.