in the us, posting or making public names of students and/or full ss numbers ALONG with any evaluative information .... is considered illegal ... however, using the last 4 digits of the ss number (or some other created scheme) is considered ok ... so, i can put the stack of test results/papers outside my door to be picked up ...

thus ... one might argue that IF we can make public ... legally ... evaluative information when there is only (say) the last 4 digits of one's ss number (minimally identifiable) then ... why not let an instructor divulge this information to ANY outside party ... ?

but, the counter argument to this is that in most institutions where research is done there is some form of an IRB or review process for approving of student/faculty research when it comes to using humans and, someone would need to go through that process EVEN if the kind of student data they would be using is UNidentifiable ... ONE PURPOSE OF THE PANEL IS TO INSURE THAT SUCH DATA ARE not IDENTIFIABLE

so, i would suggest that an instructor does not have the unilateral right to be sending student evaluative information like grades or test scores ... to some external entity ... without some formal approval by ... the students and/or the institutional body that makes such review decisions

finally, why WOULD a faculty member want to do this in the first place? test scores and grades are such iffy sorts of things ... fraught with "error" ... why let that kind of data get out??? i wouldn't do it

At 11:22 AM 1/15/2003, Robert J. MacG. Dawson wrote:
        One relevant question: is the payment offered in line with the effort
involved in anonymizing & sending the data? If it is disproportionately
large, one would have to assume it was an attempt to influence the
instructor in some other way.
.
.
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