Professional Development for School IT Leaders

There is often discussion about the need to provide students with the skills they need for the future of work. Career readiness is a huge part of today’s K-12 curriculum. But what about skilled professionals who are already in the workplace? Gaining the skills they need to keep up with the rapidly changing workplace can be a challenge. This is particularly true for IT professionals in K-12 schools. That’s why we’re so pleased to introduce GG4L’s Certified Data Privacy Administrator (CDPA) program.

About the CDPA Program

GG4L is a public benefit corporation and one of their primary initiatives is career readiness, for both students and IT professionals. They offer the CDPA program for free to K-12 school IT leaders, helping elevate these professionals in their roles in protecting student data privacy. The program consists of four modules:

Introduction and Foundation: This module introduces the rationale for controlling the sharing of PII with EdTech resources that use this data.  It introduces many of the national, state, and regional standards, guidelines, and requirements for ensuring privacy of staff and student data.

Identifying and Managing Products That Use Data: EdTech products that consume and use PII are abundant.  This module helps school IT leaders understand how to identify what products are in use and where, how, and why they are being used. This module will introduce commercially available tools to help with this task.

Moving Data Across the Ecosystem: Data moves between applications using different methodologies. These include Application Program Interface (API) and secure file transfer protocol (SFTP). This module reviews the advantages and disadvantages of different methodologies, in addition to different data exchange standards. It also looks at various third-party data sharing service providers, the standards to which they conform, and methods used by each.

Managing and Monitoring Data Privacy: This module addresses steps you should take and tools to use to be aware of various changes in data sharing. Data Privacy Agreements (DPA) are required by many state, regional, and other governing agencies. This module looks at the different off-the-shelf DPAs that have been adopted by agencies. The DPA itself is not a method for ensuring data privacy. As a result, this module focuses on available tools that show how to track the ongoing sharing of PII routinely.

Why School IT Leaders Should Obtain CDPA Certification

Professional development for K-12 IT leaders is essential for the ongoing protection of the school as well as the ability for the professional to develop skills that will help them remain competitive in their field and grow their careers. Benefits of obtaining CDPA certification include:

• Improved Technological Proficiency
• Improved Network Security for the District
• Increased Efficiency
• Job Satisfaction

Student data is constantly at risk, so having someone in the school who can help protect their data is of urgent need. The Certified Data Privacy Administrator (CDPA) program helps to train IT leaders at schools in the most efficient methods for not only keeping students data safe but also understanding who has access to data and why. Learn more: https://edcuration.com/1304/Certified+Data+Privacy+Administrator