Hempfield to use app to help students plan for their future after graduation

Hempfield Area School District is partnering with a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that will assist students in selecting a career path aligned with their interests and skills.

Board members last week approved a contract with Smart Futures, an online career planning and portfolio platform that will guide students as they make graduation plans.

“We want students to recognize their own interests, their own strengths, and so when they get into the higher levels, when they’re getting ready to do their high school portfolio planning … then it’s meaningful to them,” Lisa Maloney, Hempfield’s supervisor of pupil services, said during last week’s board meeting.

According to the Smart Futures website, the platform helps students answer three main questions: Who am I, where am I going and how do I get there?

It uses surveys, activities and skill-building tools to help students identify realistic career goals. From there, students are able to explore careers that match their goals. After a student figures out a career path — which could include a four-year college, trade school or military — they are connected with relevant majors and schools.

“We allow students to find their own way, and we just provide them with as much information and opportunities as we can,” Maloney said.

The platform also will be used to log artifact collection, or evidence that demonstrates student engagement throughout their years in school, Maloney said. Artifact collection is reported at the end of each school year as laid out by the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Career Education and Work, or CEW standards.

The district currently uses Google Drive to record artifact collection.

According to Maloney, switching to Smart Futures will allow the collection to be portable in case a student moves to or from a different school district.

Parents also will have the ability to go into the program and look at their child’s artifact collection and goals.

The license for Smart Futures begins July 1 and runs through June 30, 2023. The estimated cost is $16,500, which will be paid for with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money.

“It’s very outcome based,” Maloney said of the program. “We want the students to leave here prepared for more.”

Privacy concerns

Before board members approved the Smart Futures contract, parent Jenifer Silvis expressed concerns about the program’s privacy policy.

“Most parents are unaware of the dangers these apps and programs pose,” Silvis said. “Yes, on the surface it sounds great and would seem to be helping advance our children. We must ask ourselves, though, at what cost? Are we selling our children’s personal information so they can be put on a pathway of success? Who has determined what their success is? We are creating little compliant robots that do the bidding for the wealthy.”

She continued, stating that children are constantly looking at a screen and that they are being tracked and profiled.

“Parents will celebrate these advancements but not put the work into reading the fine print,” she said. “We rely on our boards to watch out and warn us of anything that could be concerning. Are the boards blinded by money, power or control? Smart Futures will be collecting your child’s personal, identifiable information.”

According to Smart Futures’ online privacy policy agreement, the program collects a student’s name; date of birth; graduation year; a login ID, which may be an email address; and a password. When a child is older, Smart Futures will collect career-related resources such as resumes, letters of recommendation and portfolio items showing a student’s work.

The agreement states that Smart Futures does not share information with any third parties. The site, however, might collect and make use of personal information to “assist in the operation of our website and to ensure delivery of the services you need and request.” Personally identifiable information may be used to keep users informed of other available products and services from smartfutures.org.

Website users have the option to stop receiving communications from Smart Futures. Users also can unsubscribe or opt out from any third-party websites.

“I did read the privacy policies, and it appears that the parent will have the opportunity to opt in or out for the third-party tracking,” board member Mike Alfery said. “I just want to make sure that that’s clear and it’s presented to the parents that way. So they do have an option to opt in or out of the information sharing.”

Maloney added that a parent can decide whether they want their child using the program. If a parent decides against it, the student would go back to using Google Drive.

According to Superintendent Tammy Wolicki, the district plans to send information to parents regarding the program and privacy policy.

She noted the district “carefully examines privacy policies of all software programs and utilities to assure practices aligned with the Protection of Pupil Rights Act and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule,” which aims to protect the online privacy of children younger than 13.