FC: Can well-intended but misguided privacy laws harm education?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: Sonia Arrison <sarrison () pacificresearch org>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Privacy Laws Harm Education?
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 17:52:12 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0

Declan,

Most of us remember that in elementary school teachers would give spelling
tests and then ask students to pass their paper to the student behind them
to grade it.  Well, that common and useful exercise might be outlawed by
presumably well-intended privacy laws.  The US Supreme court will be
deciding whether school grading practices violated the Family Education
Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  This is yet one more example of how strict
privacy laws upset social balance and result in poor unintended
consequences.  There'll be more on the unintended consequences of privacy
laws in my soon to be released privacy paper, "Consumer Privacy: A Free
Choice Approach".  Below is an article on the "paper swapping" case as well
as some links to useful info.

-Sonia

Sonia Arrison
Director, Center for Freedom and Technology
Pacific Research Institute
755 Sansome Street, Suite 450
San Francisco, CA 94111
ph: (415) 989-0833 x 107
fx: (415) 989-2411
www.pacificresearch.org


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High court agrees to hear paper-swapping case
KELLY KURT, Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 25, 2001
©2001 Associated Press
URL:
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2001/06/25/nat
ional1848EDT0730.DTL>
(06-25) 15:48 PDT TULSA, Okla. (AP) --
The U.S. Supreme Court, taking up the privacy issue, has agreed to decide
whether to end common classroom practices such as allowing students to grade
each other's assignments and posting honor rolls.
The court announced Monday it will hear the appeal of Owasso Public Schools.
Kristja J. Falvo sued the district in 1998, alleging her three children --
ranging from ninth to 11th grade -- were embarrassed when other students
graded their work and then called grades out to the teacher.
A federal judge sided with the district, but the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Denver ruled that the grading practice violated the Family
Education Rights and Privacy Act.
The act prohibits educational institutions from releasing "education records
of students ... without the written consent of their parents." The appeals
court found that grades students report to the teacher constitute "education
records."
[...]

Links with info on FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act )
follow.  Failure of an educational agency or institution to comply with
FERPA can result in the loss of Federal funding.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/actguid/infshare.html

http://www.feti.tec.ar.us/family.htm

http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/fs9878.txt

http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/about/98juvjust/980513b.html


And a link to the Falvo case:

http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/10th/995130.htm




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