Research solutions for education agencies
SafeInsights enables research, demonstrates the value of your programs, and informs policy — without draining your resources or putting student data at risk.
Partnering with leaders in teaching and learning
More research. Less risk. No compromise
State and local educational data systems hold tremendous potential for analyzing learning outcomes and informing education policy — but traditional research partnerships create significant challenges. Lengthy approval processes, limited staff resources, and privacy concerns often prevent valuable research from happening at all.
SafeInsights offers a fundamentally different approach. Instead of exporting student data to researchers, we bring researchers' questions to your data. Researchers never see raw student records. Your data never leaves your systems. And your team maintains control over which studies move forward. With SafeInsights's powerful research infrastructure, you can prove program effectiveness and determine which interventions best support your students.
This is privacy-preserving research at a large scale — backed by the U.S. National Science Foundation, based at Rice University, and built to help you balance researcher demand with the stringent privacy standards your organization requires.
Become a SafeInsights Data Partner
Join our research network to enable large-scale research on learning outcomes — with streamlined approvals, privacy protection, and control over your data.
Why state and local education agencies choose SafeInsights
How the process works
Education research has traditionally required state and local agencies to endure manual data pulls and months-long approval processes — tying up staff resources and creating privacy and compliance concerns. SafeInsights takes a new approach.
Instead of extracting data for researchers, SafeInsights brings research questions directly to your systems. Your data stays private in secure digital enclaves, researchers only see aggregate results, and administrative burden is significantly reduced. Through our unique approach to data privacy, researchers can study learning at scale, answering complex questions that drive better outcomes for your students.
Here's how it works:
Step 1: Researchers submit study proposals
Researchers submit their research proposals to you via SafeInsights.
Step 2: Your team reviews and approves
You decide which studies align with state or local priorities, which datasets researchers can work with, and which governance requirements apply.
Step 3: Analysis runs in the secure enclave
Researchers convert their research questions into code, which you review and approve. Their questions are then analyzed in your secure enclave. Researchers never see individual student records or raw data from your systems.
Step 4: You approve results before release
Your team reviews aggregated results to ensure privacy protection and compliance before researchers receive them.
The result? Your agency contributes to research that informs state and local education policy (for everything from K-12 to postsecondary institutions) and demonstrates the value of your data systems — all while maintaining student privacy.
Interested in becoming a Data Partner?
Share your information, and we'll connect you with our team to discuss how SafeInsights can work for your state or local agency.
Frequently asked questions
SafeInsights helps you set up a secure enclave inside your existing data center and provides tools to connect that enclave to the SafeInsights network. Researchers submit their research questions to your enclave via SafeInsights. Researchers don't see your data – they are sent aggregate results. All of these steps only happen with your approval. And your data stays inside the systems that are already protecting it today.
Still have questions? Our team is here to help you understand how SafeInsights can work for you. Just fill out our contact form, and we'll be in touch.