Op-Ed
An 'F' for Fairness
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Your elementary school teachers undoubtedly had you pass your spelling test to the kid next to you for grading. It's common procedure in grade school. But this could be changing. Six states have outlawed this method of student grading and, depending on the outcome of a Supreme Court case heard last week, it could become illegal nationwide.
It started in 1999 when an Oklahoma mother sued her local school district when a classmate graded her sixth grade son's spelling test and called out his score, a 47, to the entire class. She feels that the student grading practice violated her son's right to privacy.
According to the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), no school receiving federal funding can release an educational record without parental permission. The question is, what constitutes an educational record? A district judge dismissed the case, stating that spelling tests are not official educational records and therefore do not qualify for confidential status. Undeterred, the mother and her lawyers marched on to an appeal court and won. Now it's reached the Supreme Court.
It's a battle for the right to privacy versus the right for schools to autonomously decide how they will conduct business. But when you look at the implications of guaranteeing spelling test confidentiality to every elementary school child, it becomes a battle for so much more. It could undermine the right of educators to do their job, and the student's right to learn. The notion that every piece of paper with a student's name on it merits classified status is dangerous to our educational system. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Oklahoma mother, it could subject teachers to arbitrary and multitudinous lawsuits.
The possibilities for prosecution are endless. If an insignificant grade on a weekly spelling test is confidential, the gold star chart for academic excellence definitely instigates litigation. Such methods of praise leave the unpraised publicly starless, revealing which students perform poorly in an academic environment. Construction paper snowmen and turkeys will have to go as well. Some kids are blatantly better with paste and scissors. Chagrined second graders and prosecuted Ms. Pringle we don't want. And God spare Ms. Atkinson: she had Susie pass Johnny's multiplication quiz back to him and a whole row of students saw his score. Her career and life savings are gone.
Lawsuits wouldn't be limited to elementary schools either. At the university level, this ruling could fundamentally alter the way higher education operates. If peer grading is outlawed, the use of undergraduate T.A.s and graders will have to end. Universities couldn't risk loosing a lawsuit to a floundering Chem 101 student who felt shamed in front of his peer T.A. To compensate for ousted undergraduate T.A.s, more expensive labor would have to be employed, driving the cost of tuition ever higher.
What about group work? Much to the Hotel School's dismay, group work could be too much of a liability as well. Group work earns a group grade, compromising a student's right to academic privacy under the proposed standards. This means that TCAB is an illegal time bomb.
A ruling in favor of student privacy would alter teaching and work practices, not to mention time-honored traditions such as the honor roll and naming of a valedictorian. These practices could arguably be deemed illegal. Furthermore, a ruling in favor of the Tulsa mother could discourage good teachers from even entering the profession. It's difficult enough to find good teachers -- let's not scare them off with lawsuits. It's hard enough to live on a teacher's salary -- let's not bombard them with additional legal fees. In the end, this case could create yet another factor that deprives the students of excellent instruction.
As students, working in a group environment with others in our peer group, we must accept that other students may get a sense of our academic performance. Raising the standards for student privacy will only turn the education system into a hunting ground, subjecting teachers and schools to lawsuits similar to the malpractice suits that plague the medical field, or the specious personal injury cases that ail motorists. Outlawing peer grading sets a precedent for immoral, money-hungry parents to sue their child's teacher. Treating every rinky-dink spelling test as a confidential document sets up a fear culture in our schools. Teachers should have the right to conduct class without fear of litigation.
This case, demanding confidentiality for every piece of classroom paper, extends the student's right to privacy too far and at the expense of teachers' rights. Ironically, a judgment in favor of students' rights could infringe upon a student's right to learn. It would be unfortunate, especially for lovers of TCAB, undergraduate T.A.s, construction paper snowmen and the gold star chart. Archived article by Andrea Forker