Student records released under open records law
By Matt Bishop, Editor
OCCC has recently joined other Oklahoma colleges in releasing student grades to companies for posting on their websites.
The college released the grades under the guidance of the Oklahoma Open Records Act, said Vice President for Academic Affairs Felix Aquino. Tulsa Community College and University of Central Oklahoma also provide this information.
Grade distribution information can be found on sites such as www.pickaprof.com where students can choose a professor based on the number of A’s, B’s and C’s that professor has given.
Under state open record laws, such public records must be released.
Aquino said, in an all-employee e-mail, that only grade distribution is being released, not individual student grades.
Dean of Admissions/Registrar Gloria Cardenas Barton said the college can release certain information about how many students withdraw, fail, or make A’s because that information doesn’t refer to an individual student, she said.
Cardenas Barton said, information also can be released if someone wants to know the breakdown in a certain class, as long as there is no way it can be tied to a certain individual.
The college also had to take into account federal laws outlined in The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Aquino said.
FERPA is federal legislation that protects students’ records, Cardenas Barton said.
“FERPA says that anything that is personally identifiable … cannot be released to anybody but the student without the stu-dent’s signature,” Cardenas Barton said.
However, school officials with a legitimate educational interest, such as information needed for a transfer, may gain the student’s records without a student signature, Carde-nas Barton said.
Aquino said the college will not release grade information on a class with small enrollment.
Hypothetically, if five students were in a class and all made F’s, no information could be released because it could be known specifically what grade each student made, Cardenas Barton said.
However, if three students made A’s and two made F’s, in theory, FERPA would release that information because no individual students would be identifiable.
Also, under FERPA, each institution identifies directory information that can be released without the student’s signature, Cardenas Barton said.
Those include name, major, high school attended and students’ college e-mail addresses.
Although some campuses choose to release home addresses and phone numbers as part of directory information, OCCC does not.
“Since all our students are commuter students, we don’t really want to be in the business of releasing [addresses and phone numbers],” Cardenas Barton said.
Students can request the college not release any information.
She said students can send that written request to the office of Records and Graduation Services.
Cardenas Barton said students should keep in mind that could affect students needing employment verification and verification for insurance purposes.
For more information, call Cardenas Barton at 405-682-7515.
Editor Matt Bishop can be reached at editor@occc.edu.
