The data collected by the MLDS Center include personally identifiable information (PII) on students and workers. A very limited number of Center staff access and use the PII data to conduct identity matching - linking records of individuals across all of the agencies from which data are provided. For example, a student may have a K-12 record, a college record, and a workforce record; by matching identities across the different agencies, the data can be used to explore how K-12 education impacts college going, college degree completion, and/or workforce outcomes.

The PII data are only used for matching identities. Once the data are matched, the identifiable information is removed, a unique identifier is assigned, and the data are moved to another server. It is at this point that research and analysis can be conducted by authorized staff of the Center (using de-identified data). All public output may only contain aggregate data. If the aggregate data may be identifiable based on the size or uniqueness of the population under consideration, that data must be suppressed.

State and federal laws, the Center’s processes, and system architecture work together to provide an extremely secure environment for this important student and worker data and ensures that their privacy are never compromised.