I have an issue regarding student privacy (grades)

jane, First of all, Welcome To A2K. Don't let the exposure of your grade upset you too much. Trust me; after you've left college, and start in your career, that grade will mean hardly anything in the scheme of things. Even in the current environment, grades do not prove a person's character or worth. My grades weren't all that good, but my career in accounting was fantastic! Yeah, I got on the Dean's list a few times, but our oldest son got on the Dean's list every quarter, and graduated summa cum laude. Even with my not-so-good grades, I worked in management most of my working career. It's what you do with your education that counts - remember that! And good luck to you. c.i.

It's been awhile, but I seem to remember that when I went to college the grades were posted on a bulletin board for everyone to see.

My grades have been posted, but it was done against our student number's, not our names, so unless you knew another person's student number, you didn't know what they got.

I'm glad that I live in a country with "freedom of privacy"

i recall the same thing phoenix

Hi Jane,
being a teacher myself, I know that it in fact is illegal. I myself believe it is a bit over the top, but you are right. Instructor may not post your name OR your full ID number with grades, or email it to everyone. When I do that, I post the last four digits of students ID's with grades. You may want to alert your instructor to this fact, because it may get her/him into trouble eventually in this litigeous society... But, the deed is done, try to take it easy, after all, it really hardly matters, as long as you graduate.

Hmmm.......... That might have been the way it was for me, Wilso. As I said, it's been a LONG time.

Anyhow, when I was in 7th grade, our English teacher used to sit us in grade point order, which changed every quarter. That was a horror.

jane008- You might want to approach the prof, and share your thoughts with him. As educated as they are, there are some academics, (as well as many other people) that are NOWHERE when it comes to interpersonal relations and empathy.

At school, no-one knew the other's marks.

At university, they were on the board: just with the student's numbers, as Wilso said, too. (And this was more difficult, since I always had to look it up.)

actually in Croatia is opposite, here in school everybody knew the other's marks - however, we are not as sensitive as some (and I really don't think that in any negative way - it's just different mentality - I simply cannot imagine someone here being stressed because others know his or her grades), so it was never problem. And it was quite usual thing that better pupils help those that are not that good with learning together, working together, etc...it's not that possible if someone's bad grades are top secret.

The law that covers the issue is commonly called "FERPA". It's the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

It applies to any school (primary, secondary and post-secondary) that receives funds from the US Dept of Education. Unless your school is 100% privately funded they are required to comply with it.

You can read the law here:
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/reg/ferpa/index.html

This is strange to me.

In grade school to High School, we were ranked every month, for 1st to last. School cards were given publicly, in strict rank order, from last to first.

At the University, all grades were public. Big spreadsheets on the boards, with student number AND names.
Even when the Student Council took power and the School had a student-teacher co-government -we are talking early seventies-, grades were publicly spread. No one ever gave it a "privacy" tought.

As a teacher, I always posted the student's grades outside my office (so they would not come inside just to ask how they did in the exam), and if I saw anything ressembling a "cloned" exam, I'd put "F for fraud" next to the student's name and number.

It's a cultural thing, I guess.

It seems to me that most things people worry about are not all that important - to most other people. Some people never learn this truth, and suffer through life worrying about inconsequential things.

I bet most people wear clean underwear. LOL