UPDATE: Highline Doubles Down on i-Ready Despite Lawsuit, Privacy Concerns, and Parent Outcry

Updated posting: May 11, 2026
Original posting: May 8, 2026 5:20pm

UPDATE: As of late Friday afternoon, Kelly Stonelake confirmed that she now has a meeting set with Superintendent Ivan Duran to discuss her concerns.

i-Ready is alleged in a lawsuit "to collect detailed behavioral, demographic, and technical data on students, including interaction patterns ...and shares or uses that data in ways not adequately disclosed..."

At the Wednesday, May 6th Highline School Board meeting, Highline alum and parent Kelly Stonelake kicked off the evening’s public testimony with a scathing list of concerns over the use of tech program i-Ready, a digital assessment extensively used at Highline. The tool is currently under scrutiny in a lawsuit. Student data privacy, Marvista parent concerns, and more are outlined in Stonelake’s recent Substack post.

A Learning Tool Used by Millions Faces Questions About Evidence—and a Lawsuit

Is i-Ready running consumer tech’s predatory playbook in public schools?

Overturned by Kelly StonelakeKelly Stonelake

Later in the meeting, the board adopted the one-year i-Ready contract renewal in a split vote (3-1-1).

Kelly Stonelake has two children in Highline schools, and a third who is a former Highline student. Kelly spent nearly 15 years working at Meta (Facebook), including as a Director of Product Marketing. After raising ethical concerns about child safety and alleging retaliation, she left Meta in 2024 and became a FTC whistleblower on child safety and testified before the Washington State Congress, including in support of the recently passed AI Chatbot bill. She also has a lawsuit against Meta in the discovery stage in federal court.

Kelly has concerns about i-Ready and other technology, which she's written about on her Substack "Overturned", including this recent article focused on Highline District and Marvista Parent concerns: A Learning Tool Used by Millions Faces Questions About Evidence—and a Lawsuit

Below is her testimony starting at 1hr 12minutes:

Kelly Stonelake’s Testimony to Highline Board on May 6

“Good evening Dr. Duran, President Van, and Board Members,

My name is Kelly Stonelake. I’m a Highline alum, Highline parent, and I recently published an investigation into i-Ready’s evidence base and data privacy practices. I’ve brought copies of that report. 

I learned that there is zero peer-reviewed research demonstrating that i-Ready works as an instructional intervention or as an assessment tool. i-Ready is also currently facing a federal lawsuit alleging that the platform shares student data with third parties, including advertising companies.

While i-Ready will tell you that school districts have the right to consent to data sharing on behalf of students, they likely haven’t told you that in an amicus brief in the 2025 IXL case, the FTC rejected this idea and said that any school role must be strictly limited to the notice-and-consent process.

Highline should not assume it can safely consent on behalf of families to broad student data sharing, ethical or not, without significant legal risk. 

California and Michigan recently conducted extensive reviews of tools for assessment and screening based on criteria like validity, reliability, and representative norming. i-Ready did not make California’s list, and it appears on Michigan’s explicitly unapproved list.

My first recommendation is that the board defer any future-year commitment until Highline has completed a detailed review of i-Ready and alternatives.

If the district believes it needs continuity for assessment next year, then I urge you to approve only the assessment-related portion as a one-year stopgap. Removing personalized instruction would limit data collection and reduce Highline’s reliance on a product without an independent evidence base. 

An assessment-only contract would be approximately $99k, saving over $400k that could instead go toward interventionists, tutoring, or other supports while the district investigates.

Please defer the decision if you can. If you cannot, please remove personalized instruction and keep only the assessment as a temporary bridge. 

Thank you.”

Highline Board Narrowly Approves i-Ready

Despite public testimony and growing concern, the Highline School Board voted to move forward anyway — approving the measure in a 3-1-1 vote. (3 yays, 1 abstain by Dir. Espinoza, 1 nay by Dir. Holien)

Kelly’s Efforts Continue

Last week, Kelly had emailed a letter to  Superintendent, Dr. Duran and the School Board, well before the board meeting. it is included in her Substack post. Her letter asked detailed questions about privacy of student information (including finding out what is shared with third parties), academic effectiveness, and parent access to information. 

Kelly updated us that as of this publishing: “Dr. Duran responded last week and asked to meet to inform Highline's next steps...He also committed to answering my questions, but as of Friday morning, has not scheduled the meeting... (and) I have not yet received those answers.” 

We will continue to report as this story develops.