Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 31, 2022

Mastery Transcript Consortium® (“MTC”) has published this privacy policy to explain to schools, parents, and students how personally identifiable information is collected, used, and disclosed through the MTC software platform located at mastery.org (the “Platform”). If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please reach out to your school or contact us directly at info@mastery.org.

PRIVACY PROMISE: MTC is a growing network of public and independent high schools, school districts, and other educational program providers that have co-created the Mastery Transcript and MTC Learning Record. These digital learning records support mastery learning and reflect the unique skills, strengths, and interests of each learner. We understand the sensitive nature of student personally identifiable information (“Student PII”), and therefore make a number of commitments about how we protect the privacy of that Student PII. In particular:

  • We will never collect, use, share, or retain Student PII for any purpose other than as authorized by our member organizations.
  • We will never sell Student PII.
  • We will never use or disclose Student PII for commercial purposes.
  • When we conduct internal research to improve MTC’s products and services, we do not use Student PII.
  • We will never build a personal profile of a student other than to facilitate our transcript services, which support educational/school purposes.
  • We will always support access to and correction of Student PII by students or their parents.
  • Consistent with the above assurances, MTC commits to comply with all of the requirements of the K-12 School Service Provider Pledge to Safeguard Student Privacy.

What personally identifiable information is collected in connection with the Platform?

Like traditional high school transcripts, the Mastery Transcript and MTC Learning Record present information about students to college admissions readers, employers, scholarship opportunities, and other authorized recipients (“Authorized Recipients”). School and program administrators create accounts for students on the Mastery Transcript Platform by providing their email address and name. Representatives from Authorized Recipients may also be provided access to the Platform in order to view transcripts that are sent to them by School Administrators and/or to integrate our Platform with their Admissions / Hiring Systems.

Student PII that is used to populate the Mastery Transcript and MTC Learning Record is obtained from school and program administrators, as well as educators, and also directly from students. This includes information such as each student’s address and contact information, as well as information about the student’s school (or schools attended), academic performance, course history, credits earned, skills and accomplishments, extracurricular activities, interests, personal statement, examples of coursework and other evidence demonstrating mastery of particular skills, and related transcript content and materials.

PRIVACY PROMISE: We will never use Student PII to build a personal profile of a student other than to facilitate the creation of the student’s Mastery Transcript.

MTC will collect activity information about students, teachers, administrators, and Authorized Recipients when they interact with the Platform, such as when they log into their account to view or edit their Mastery Transcript. This includes technical information about use of the Platform, such as: browser type, language, plug-ins, internet domain and operating system; IP address; unique device identifiers, including mobile device identification numbers; information collected through cookies, which are small text files stored on users’ computers to save information about the use of websites, such as to track the pages you visit and record your user preferences; and information related to interactions with the Platforms, such as the links clicked and content interacted with. MTC does not sell or share this activity information, nor does it use it for any purpose other than to improve the performance of our platforms. For example, MTC does not engage in behavioral targeting of advertisements.

For more information about our use of cookies, please visit our Cookie Policy at www.mastery.org/cookie-policy-us.


How does MTC use and disclose personally identifiable information collected in connection with the Platform?

We use the personally identifiable information collected in connection with the Platform to provide our Mastery Transcript service to educational institutions that participate in the Mastery Transcript Consortium and their students, allowing member institutions to publish and deliver transcripts for their high school students to Authorized Recipients. This includes using such personally identifiable information to maintain, develop, support, improve, analyze, and troubleshoot those services, and to communicate with users about the Platform and their accounts. With respect to non-student users, MTC uses email to notify members about MTC membership offerings and events.

Because the Mastery Transcript is meant to improve upon and replace traditional student transcripts, the Student PII incorporated into each student’s Mastery Transcript will be disclosed to Authorized Recipients, but only at the direction of the student or their educational institution. However, the only information we disclose to Authorized Recipients is the Mastery Transcript itself and the Student PII it contains. We do not disclose technical information or information about students’ usage of the Platform to Authorized Recipients.

Otherwise, MTC will not disclose personally identifiable information collected in connection with the Platform except in the following circumstances:

  • With respect to Student PII, when directed or consented to by the student (or the student’s parent or guardian) or teacher who input the information, or by the administrator of an educational institution’s account;
  • To service providers who work on our behalf and who will use the information in furtherance of our operations, in accordance with our privacy commitments;
  • In response to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, or to comply with government reporting obligations pursuant to law;
  • When we believe in good faith it is necessary to protect the safety of students or others, or to detect, prevent, or respond to fraud, intellectual property infringement, violations of our Membership Agreement or EULA, violations of law, or other misuse of the Platform;
  • To service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another organization or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets in bankruptcy or otherwise. This means that if some or all of our assets are acquired or otherwise transferred, including in bankruptcy, the acquirer will be permitted to maintain the student information transferred, subject to confidentiality agreements, the terms of this privacy policy, and applicable law.

We will never use or disclose Student PII for any purpose other than as authorized by the school.

We will never use, disclose, or sell Student PII information for commercial purposes.


How does MTC conduct research using the information collected in connection with the Platform?

MTC conducts internal research to improve its products and services. We do not use student PII when conducting this research unless we have received express permission from our school or program. (For example, if we are seeking to speak directly with students as a focus group or to provide user feedback, we will seek schools’ permission before doing so.)

In some limited circumstances, and only when authorized by the educational institution, MTC may share aggregate information with third-party researchers. In these circumstances, we would de-identify personally identifiable information, as permitted under applicable laws, so that students may not reasonably be re-identified by us or any other party, and only then use or share that de-identified information for research. Researchers are then required to use the information only in support of the study and consistent with our policies.

What rights do schools and parents have with respect to Student PII collected in connection with the Platform?

MTC remains under the direct control of the school for the Student PII we receive, and uses such Student PII only for purposes authorized by the school and subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”). Schools retain the right to ask MTC to access, correct, or delete Student PII collected in connection with the Platform, and MTC will support access to and correction of Student PII by parents consistent with legal requirements.

Because MTC remains under the direct control of the school with respect to its use of Student PII, parents who may have concerns about the collection or use of Student PII by MTC or the Platform should contact their school. If you are not sure who at your student’s school will be able to help, please contact us at the contact details listed below.

How does MTC secure personally identifiable information collected in connection with the Platform?

We maintain safeguards designed to protect the security, privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of personally identifiable information against risks – such as unauthorized access or use, or unintended or inappropriate disclosure – through the use of administrative, technological, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

MTC uses third-party service providers to host and maintain the Platform. Each service provider has been vetted by MTC with respect to the service provider’s representations about how personally identifiable information is transmitted, stored, processed, and maintained by the service provider.

How long does MTC retain student personal information?

MTC does not retain student personal information for longer than necessary to deliver services for authorized school purposes, or as authorized by the parent/student.

Will MTC make changes to this privacy policy?

We will not make changes to this privacy policy without first providing notice to educational institutions at the contact information specified in our agreements with those institutions, and to end-users via direct on-screen notification. Your continued use of the Platform after we post any modifications to the privacy policy will constitute your acknowledgement of the modifications and your consent to abide and be bound by the modified privacy policy.

How can you contact us?

If you have any questions about this policy or our use of personally identifiable information collected in connection with the Platform, please contact us at info@mastery.org.