The Education Department issued a final rule yesterday allowing state and local education officials to share student data more widely without violating federal privacy laws. So what would you do with more student data?

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the new rule “also makes lenders, guarantors, and other agencies with access to student records subject to the law, known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, or FERPA.”

Combined with the recent report from the Data Quality Campaign that nearly all states have data systems that could allow them to track students’ progress over time, it looks like we may slowly be gaining a data infrastructure on our students’ growth. But the next question, of course, is: Would it be used?

So what would you do with more data? Are you itching to fill in some specific data gaps? Are you struggling to understand how to use it wisely? Do you, or your communities, have privacy concerns that need to be addressed? Let us know. And don’t forget to check out our data-specific Web site, Data First. –Rebecca St. Andrie