In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dennis Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >we all have been dancing around what the law is ... which started in 1974 >with the family educational rights and privacy act ... FERPA ... sometimes >referred to as the buckley amendment
>have a look at the following summary: >http://www.epic.org/privacy/education/ferpa.html >part of this amendment was to make sure parents had access to the records >of their children ... I was under the impression that parents did NOT have access to the records of their children. BTW, it is not limited to academic records. >other language in the act speaks to what information IS included and what >is not ... and, it also speaks to what is considered to be confidential >of course, all this is grounded in the withholding of federal $$$ if >institutions do not apply ... I am not sure if the confidentiality requirements require consideration of federal funding. >i don't see anything specifically in this document about what CAN be >displayed publicly in terms of students' academic records from a course ... >or now specifically this can or cannot be displayed I believe that essentially nothing which can identify a student's academic progress or attainment can be revealed without a student's consent, except to those who require it as part of their academic duties. >DOES ANYONE OUT THERE HAVE ANY SPECIFIC CASES/DOCUMENTS/RULINGS/LEGAL AND >LEGISLATIVE OPINIONS ... that lay out what can and cannot be displayed >(like scores on tests or grades in course) and what is within the law and >outside of the law? certain schools may have adopted THEIR version of what >they think is the "law" but, that does not mean that is correct >we have given many of our opinions but, what IS the law and ... what are >specific citations for it? >>I do not see things this way; grading should try to be >>absolute. As far as "relative to others", this should >>not be others in the class, but others in the field. >there is no such thing as absolute grading ... it is always relative to >something ... relative to what the instructor thinks cuts the mustard ... >relative to other students in the class ... relative to how other students >have done in the past ... relative to certain cut points the instructor has >set ... A grade certainly involves the judgment of the grade giver, but to make in relative to how other students have done at any time makes the grade of little real value. This is what leads to grade inflation and course deflation to the point at which it becomes meaningless. However, we need to reduce the importance of grades and credits, and make the course grade advisory, with degrees based on comprehensive examinations, which should test the students' understanding. In that case, they should be even more confidential. I have seen lots of chicken tracks in grades and letters of recommendation. The relation to what the student knows and can do is little. >there is no other way ... -- This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman Rubin, Deptartment of Statistics, Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558 . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
