Ellevation® Platform Privacy Policy 

Last Updated: May 17, 2023

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Ellevation platform for educators of English language learners, including Ellevation Math® and Ellevation Strategies®. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the Ellevation website https://ellevationeducation.com. The Privacy Policy for the Ellevation website may be found here: https://ellevationeducation.com/privacy-policy.   

Introduction and Scope of this Policy:

The Ellevation platform is a web and mobile-based platform designed to help educators support English Learners (ELs) and other students. The Ellevation platform is operated by Ellevation Education, which is part of Curriculum Associates, LLC (“Ellevation,” “we,” “us”). We are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information, and we have provided this policy to our users (collectively, “you,” “your”), including our education institution customers and their employees (collectively, “Customers”) and students of the types of information we collect, and the ways in which we will use and disclose it.  

By accessing or using the Ellevation platform, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.  

Ellevation operates from the United States and its services are intended for use in the United States. We do not market our services to residents or carry out operations in regions outside of the US, including, but not limited to the European Economic Area. If you are located outside the United States, the information you provide to us is transmitted and processed in the United States, and it will be protected subject to this Privacy Policy and applicable laws, which may not be as protective as the laws in your country. By using Ellevation, you agree to this.

Information Customers Provide: 

When Customers decide to use the Ellevation platform, they provide us with a staff ID number, first and last name, and email address for each staff member who will have an Ellevation platform account. We use this information to create the accounts and provide initial account credentials. Customers will provide additional, optional information about their staff members, such as names of the courses they teach and their scheduling options.  In addition, Customers may share comments on our instructional materials within the Ellevation platform, and these comments will be visible to all Customers. Customers may also provide us with information when they contact us with questions, for troubleshooting or other customer service-related requests   

Student Data: 

Customers provide minimally required information about their students, such as student first and last name and ID#, which is used to ensure that Customers are able to view and monitor student activity within Ellevation. Customers may choose to upload additional student information onto the Ellevation platform, such as demographic, assessment, schedule, and instructional data, as well as comments on their student records. This information is used only for our Customers’ internal educational purposes. We provide Customers of Ellevation Math with a username and password for each of their student users. When a student logs in, they are required to provide a new password. Within Ellevation Math, students may submit text or audio answers to questions as they progress through the Ellevation learning modules. We treat this information as personal information under all applicable laws. This information is used for the Customer’s educational purposes, to allow them to review their students’ progress and understanding of the lessons.   

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA):

 As part of our written agreements with Customers, each Customer agrees to appoint Ellevation as a “school official” as the term is used in FERPA, 34 C.F.R. §99 et. seq. Ellevation agrees to be bound by the relevant provisions of FERPA, including that we will remain under the “direct control” of our Customers with respect to the use and handling of “education records” as the term is used in FERPA. Ellevation will use student personal information only in connection with providing services to the Customer and will only share student personal information with its third-party partners as necessary in connection with the performance of services.  

Students Under Age 13: Under the direction of the Customer, students under age 13 may use Ellevation Math. In doing so, as noted above, students may provide responses to questions about the lessons in open text fields. Ellevation operates Ellevation Math in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). In accordance with our Terms of Use and consistent with applicable law, our Customers agree to obtain any necessary parental consent prior to permitting students to access and use Ellevation Math. We do not require that students provide more information than is necessary to operate Ellevation Math, and we use student personal information only to provide Ellevation Math to our Customers.  Customers may make the personal information provided by students available to parents or legal guardians for their review through the Customer dashboard available within Ellevation, and we will support Customers in facilitating that access at their request.   

Information We Collect Automatically:

 When you use Ellevation, our servers automatically record information sent from your browser (“Log Data”). Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type and machine model, pages of Ellevation that you visit, the time spent on those pages, activity you engage in on the pages, the referring URL, and access times and dates. We use this information to monitor, analyze use of and administer Ellevation, and to better tailor Ellevation to your needs.  To collect this information, we use certain technologies including:   

Cookies:

A cookie is a small data file sent from a website or application and stored on your computer or device. Cookies allow us to recognize your browser when you return to our platform, and to remember your login information. Cookies also allow us to serve certain features, to better understand how you interact with Ellevation, and to monitor aggregated usage. You can set your browser to detect some cookies, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, look in the Tools, Help or similar section of your web browser, or visit https://allaboutcookies.org.

Analytics:

We use third party service providers, including Google Analytics, Intercom, and New Relic, to assist us in collecting and understanding Log Data. For more information about Google Analytics, see the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting information about you and recognizing you on return visits to our Platform by disabling cookies on your browser or by installing the Google Analytics opt out plug in. Note that we are not responsible for the Google Analytics opt-out tools.  By using the Ellevation platform, you agree to our use of these tracking technologies.   

How We May Use Your Information: 

The Customer retains control of all student personal information that Ellevation maintains. At no point is Ellevation the owner of such data, nor at any point does Ellevation control such data. We do not sell or rent personal information.  

We use and disclose personal information only for the purposes of providing the Ellevation platform to our Customers as described above, and as follows: 

• As directed by our Customers to provide them with Ellevation platform features and services  
• To our third-party service partners to permit them to provide features and services on our behalf (see Third Party Service Providers section below); 
• To investigate a suspected violation of the Terms of Service, suspected fraud or other unlawful activity; 
• As may be required by law or as ordered by a court, where legally permissible, to notify Customers and to work with Customers to seek to limit the scope of the required disclosure, as further described below;  
• In the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, bankruptcy or other disposition of our business, in which case the transferred information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy; and 
• With your consent and as permissible under applicable laws and regulations. 

In the event that we receive a court order or law enforcement request (including but not limited to an administrative subpoena or judicial warrant) for access to, use of, or inspection of Customer data, including Customer’s student personal information, wherever legally permissible, we will not act directly on such request, but will instead promptly refer such requests directly to Customer. To the extent we are legally required to provide the information requested prior to or in addition to such referral, wherever legally permissible we will promptly notify the Customer of the request and of Ellevation’s intent to comply with the request. 

Mutual Customers of Ellevation and i-Ready®:

If you license or pilot i-Ready products or services from Curriculum Associates, then please note that Ellevation will use data that you share in connection with the provision of i-Ready or that is generated during the use of i-Ready (“i-Ready Data”) and Customer’s education records and Log Data (“Customer Content”) as follows:

• Onboarding. i-Ready Data used for onboarding, rostering, and authenticating Customer’s accounts may be used by Ellevation for onboarding, rostering, and authentication purposes. Likewise, if Customer is or will be piloting i-Ready products, Customer Content may be used by Ellevation for onboarding, rostering, and authentication purposes for the i-Ready pilot. 
• i-Ready Dashboard. Ellevation will import Customer’s i-Ready Assessment results into the reporting dashboard functionality of the Ellevation Platform, unless Customer elects to opt out of such sharing by emailing its success team.
• Account Support. i-Ready Data and Customer Content may be shared between Customer’s assigned account-management and technical-support teams in support of Customer’s use of Ellevation’s services.
• Research with De-identified Data. i-Ready Data and Customer Content may be combined and de-identified: (a) to develop and improve its products; (b) for the purposes of adaptive and customized learning; (c) for research and development purposes; (d) to demonstrate the effectiveness of its products.

Third Party Service Providers: 

We employ third parties to facilitate delivery of the Ellevation platform and to provide certain features on our behalf, such as maintenance services, database management, and customer support. These parties are provided with the minimally required information necessary for them to provide these features and services. Except as specifically described in this Privacy Policy, these third parties do not have access to personally identifiable information. All third parties engaged by Ellevation to support the Ellevation platform have agreed to handle the information in in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.   

How You Can Access and Modify Your Information: 

Customers may review, correct, update, or request that we delete personal information they or their students have provided to us by accessing the dashboard within Ellevation or, in some situations, by contacting Ellevation to affect the requesting change. In order for such updates to remain in effect, Customers must make corresponding updates in data files that they choose to upload to Ellevation after they have made updates within the platform.  Since Ellevation is used under the direction of our Customers, parents, guardians, and eligible students must work directly with their school or district to review or modify information in their education record that may be stored on Ellevation.   

Data Retention: 

Prior to expiration or termination of the Customer’s contract with us and upon written request from Customer, Ellevation will provide Customer with a one-time, delimited file export of its personal student information from the Services via SFTP. Within 90 days of termination, or within 30 days of receipt of a written request from Customer, Ellevation will securely destroy Customer’s student and staff member personal information. 

• We may retain de-identified information, including aggregated, de-identified data for a variety of purposes subject to applicable law, including:   
  • To develop and improve our educational products for adaptive learning purposes and for customizing the student experience;   
  • To demonstrate the effectiveness of Ellevation, including in our marketing materials; and  
  • To develop and improve our educational products.  

Security: 

We take commercially reasonable and appropriate technical, organizational, and physical security measures to maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the data entrusted to Ellevation and to help prevent unauthorized access to our Customer data. We store data in secure server and cloud-based environments that use firewalls, VPNs, event logging, and other industry-standard protections in an effort to monitor and prevent access from outside intruders. We also encrypt the data in transit, require unique account credentials, and limit data access. Not all security risks are reasonably foreseeable, however, and Ellevation is not responsible for security incidents that are not reasonably foreseeable and not reasonably within its control.   

Breach Notification:

CA follows documented “Security Incident Management Procedures” when investigating any potential security incident. In the event of a data security breach, CA will notify impacted customers promptly that a breach has occurred, and will inform them (to the extent known) what data has been compromised. CA expects customers to notify individual teachers and parents of any such breach to the extent required, but will provide customers reasonably requested assistance with such notifications and will also reimburse customers for the reasonable costs associated with legally required breach notices.

Updates To This Privacy Policy: 

We review this Privacy Policy at least annually and may change this Privacy Policy from time to time in the future, for example,to reflect changes in legal requirements or our products and corresponding practices, and to provide more clarity to our customers on our practices. When we do, we will post a notice within the product and provide other notifications as required by law. If we make material changes to the Privacy Policy, we will notify our primary Customer contact via the email address we have in our records and changes will become effective in thirty days after the “last updated” date at the top of this policy. Customers with concerns on any material changes should reach out to their account representative to have them addressed within those thirty days. Non-material changes will become effective when posted in Ellevation. The “last updated” date at the top of this policy indicates when it was last revised.    

Contact Information: 

For additional information regarding our privacy practices, please contact us at: dataprivacy@ellevationeducation.com   

Notice for California & Nevada Residents: 

Ellevation is a Service Provider under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  As a California resident, you have certain rights regarding your personal information. These rights include: 

• Right to Know and Access Information: You may request information about the personal information we maintain about you in the ordinary course of business. This may include what personal information we collect, use, or disclose about you.  
• Right to Deletion: You may request your personal information be deleted. 

As noted below, in the event you choose to exercise your rights under the CCPA, you may contact the institution to which you have provided your personal information.  Ellevation refers all requests directed to it to the appropriate Customer.  

In order to prevent unauthorized access to your information, we are required by law to verify your identity before we may address your request. Since we will facilitate your requests through your education institution, we will rely on their verification of your identity and our existing Customer contact information in order to process requests. 

While Ellevation will fulfill requests made under the CCPA, we may not fulfill some or all of your requests to access or delete information as permitted by applicable law. 

We do not sell your personal information. 

In the event we fulfill a request to delete your personal information, such personal information may still remain on Ellevation’s backup systems until such time as the information is deleted in accordance with Ellevation’s data retention schedule. Such backup information is not ordinarily accessible by Ellevation personnel. 

To Exercise Your Rights: 

Ellevation is used at the direction of our Customers. In addition, we are obligated under FERPA to remain under the direct control of our Customers with respect to our use and maintenance of student personal information that is part of the education record. As such, to exercise your rights as described in this section, please contact your education institution and we will work with them to facilitate your request. 

Your exercise of the above rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest and our interests. Requests to exercise these rights may be granted in whole, in part, or not at all, depending on the scope and nature of the request and applicable law. Where required by applicable law, we will notify you if and why we are unable to fulfill your request. 

Authorized Agent: California residents may use an authorized agent on their behalf to exercise a privacy right discussed above. If you are an authorized agent acting on behalf of a California resident to communicate with us or to exercise a privacy right discussed above, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the requisite authorization to act on behalf of the resident and have sufficient access to their laptop, desktop, or mobile device to exercise these rights digitally. If you are an authorized agent trying to exercise rights on behalf of a Ellevation user, please contact the user's school or district with supporting verification information, which includes a valid Power of Attorney in the State of California, proof that you have access to the user’s device, and proof of your own identity. 

Non-discrimination: We shall not discriminate or otherwise penalize anyone for exercising their rights. 

Nevada Residents: We are required under Nevada law to notify you that we do not sell consumer personal information.