Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Last Updated: July 21, 2021

Research data are protected by additional data use agreements; see our Treatment of Student Data policy here.

The Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF) aims to pursue high-potential opportunities to take on intractable teaching and learning challenges that disproportionately affect Black and Latino students, and students of all races experiencing poverty. When you visit www.aerdf.org (the “Site” or “Website”), you may share information with us that helps us achieve these goals.  This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) is meant to help you understand how we collect, use and share the information you provide to us when you visit our Website.  This privacy policy does not apply to our research partners and practices. Research data are protected by additional data use agreements, and in some cases, IRB requirements.

We here at AERDF (an affiliate of NewSchools Venture Fund) are committed to the responsible collection and use of your information.  Our Privacy Notice explains:

• What information we collect and why we collect it;
• How we use that information; and,
• The choices we offer, including how to access and update information.

1. COLLECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

We collect two types of information about you through this Site: (1) information that you may choose voluntarily to provide us while using the Site (described below under “Information You Provide to Us”) and (2) information collected automatically as a result of your use of the Site (described below under “Information Collected Automatically”).

Information You Provide to Us

You may choose voluntarily to provide certain Personal Information (as defined herein) to us.  “Personal Information” is any information that can be used to identify you, including but by no means limited to       name, address, email address, physical address, or phone number.  For example, you may decide to share your name and email address with us to register for one of our mailing lists. AERDF will collect your Personal Information through this Website if you provide that information to us by filling out a form on the Site that requests such information.  We will not ask you to provide any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., Social Security numbers) through this Website, through a form on this Website or otherwise, and we ask that you not use this Website to send us any sensitive Personal Information.

When you send us an email message to any AERDF email address published on our Website, we retain the content of your message, your email address, and any information you provide to us, such as your name, your company, your contact preferences, and any response we send back to you.  This helps us manage any follow-up questions you may have, measure how effectively we address your concerns, and improve the Site. Subject to your right to opt out of communications described in Section 6 below, any information retained would be used to assure the delivery of the information you requested, to optimize your experience and enhance the quality of the time you spend with us online, and to tailor personalized communications to you in the future.

Information Collected Automatically

Like most web-based services, we (or our service providers) may automatically collect information from your browser or your device when you use the Site.  For example, this could include the frequency and duration of your visits to the Site.  We do not combine automatically-collected information with Personal Information.

Cookies and Other Information

Like many websites, we use cookies and other tracking tools for a variety of purposes, including to improve your visits to this Site.  Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred to the hard drive on your computer or other electronic devices for record-keeping purposes.  These cookies or similar technologies may identify your browser, device, Internet Protocol (IP) address, unique device identifier, device attributes, location, and language. Ultimately, these cookies and similar technologies allow websites to remember important information that will make your use of the website more convenient.

Like many websites, AERDF uses these technologies to analyze trends, gather demographic information about our user base, track your movements around the Site, see how much time you spend on the Site, administer the Site, tailor the Site for you, and to help the Site work better for you.

You can use the options in your web browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or you may change your cookie preferences in your internet browser or with third parties.  You can control and/or delete cookies used by our Site at any time. We encourage you to consult publicly available resources on how to delete cookies or what ad blockers are most effective.

Our Website uses tools from Google Analytics to collect data about the traffic on this website.

2. USE OF YOUR INFORMATION

AERDF collects and uses your Personal Information to provide the information you have requested and to inform you, via email, of other initiatives, news, requests for applications, and job opportunities relating to or available from AERDF.  We may use your information to directly communicate with you about your use of the Site or to respond to an email or submission from you. We also use your information to optimize and improve our Site and its operation.

3. SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

AERDF is a research organization, and we are not in the business of profiting from any information we collect. In the clearly defined situations where we share information, it is to further a research purposes, and the sharing is tightly controlled. AERDF does not sell, rent, or lease the information it receives through this Site to third parties.  We do not share with third parties any Personal Information collected through this site except for the limited circumstances set forth in this Privacy Notice, including:

• Business Partners and Service Providers: AERDF works with vendors, service providers, and other partners to help us provide the Site and other services by performing tasks on our behalf. We may need to share or provide information (including Personal Information) received through the Site in order to help them perform these business functions, for example, sending emails on our behalf, performing statistical analysis, database management services, database hosting, providing customer support software, and security. Additionally, we may also share information received through the Site other websites, applications or partners, for promotion of our initiatives, opportunities, or services on those websites or applications. Generally, these partners and service providers do not have the right to use Personal Information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us.
• Analytics Services: We use analytics services to help us understand and improve how this Site is used. These services may collect, store and use information in order to help us understand things like how often you use the Site, the events that occur within the Site, usage, performance data, and from where you accessed the Site.
• Legal Disclosures: AERDF may disclose information received through this website when we are required to or we believe it is appropriate to comply with the law (e.g., due to a lawful subpoena, warrant, or court order); to enforce or apply this Privacy Notice or our other policies or agreements; to protect our rights, property or safety; to protect against fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of our Website or services; to improve our products or services, or if we believe that an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires or justifies disclosure of information.

4. SECURITY AND RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the information that we collect from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction. In general, we delete information promptly upon determining  that we     no longer need to retain it to carry out our mission or meet legal obligations.

We make concerted good faith efforts to maintain the security of your information. Although we work hard to ensure the integrity and security of our systems, please note that no information system can be 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of that information.  Outages, attacks, human error, system failure, unauthorized use, or other factors may compromise the security of user information at any time.

5. LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

This Privacy Notice applies to this Website only.  The Site may contain links to websites and services provided by third parties.  Any information you provide on or to third-party websites or services is provided directly to that third party and is subject to that third party’s policies governing privacy and security.  This Privacy Notice does not apply to these websites or services. The fact that we link to a website is not an endorsement, authorization, or representation that we are affiliated with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices.  These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit Personal Information from you. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of third-party websites or services. We encourage you to learn about third parties’ privacy and security policies before providing them with Personal Information.

6. YOUR COMMUNICATIONS PREFERENCES

The Personal Information you voluntarily provide for our mailing lists allows us to keep you posted on our latest announcements, requests for applications, job opportunities, and upcoming events. If you do not want to be on our mailing lists, you can opt-out anytime by updating your preferences. You may update your preferences or request to unsubscribe from our mailing lists by using the “Update Your Preferences” or “Unsubscribe From This List” links at the bottom of emails from AERDF.

7. DATA TRANSFER

This website is hosted and operated in the United States, and is not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. Your information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using this Website you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules than those of your country.

8. CHILDREN

This Site is not directed toward individuals under the age of eighteen (18), and we request that such individuals do not provide Personal Information. Additionally, we do not knowingly collect or maintain Personal Information from anyone under the age of 18 through the Site.  If we become aware that anyone under the age of 18 has provided us with Personal Information through the Site, then we will delete this information from our files.

If you are the parent or legal guardian of a person under the age of 18 who you believe has provided Personal Information through participation in an AERDF research program, such Personal Information is not governed by this policy, but under the operative policies of the program.  Please contact the AERDF representative associated with the project if you have questions regarding such Personal Information.

9. DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS

Currently, various browsers – including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari – offer a “Do Not Track” or “DNT” option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header, which sends a signal to websites visited by the user about the user’s browser DNT preference setting.  Please note that at this time we do not honor “DNT” signals or other mechanisms that may allow you to opt out of the collection of information across networks of websites and online services as there is no standard for how online services should respond to such signals. As standards develop, we may develop policies for responding to DNT signals that we would describe in this Privacy Notice in the future.  For more information on DNT, please visit www.allaboutdnt.org.

10. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We may revise our Privacy Notice from time to time. You can see when the last update was by looking at the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page.  We will generally provide information regarding the nature and purpose of any updates, access to archived prior versions of the policy, and advance notice when possible. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice from time to time, to stay informed about our collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information through the Site.

11. CONTACT INFORMATION

AERDF welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Notice.  You can contact AERDF at info@aerdf.org.