Officials in the Oklahoma Department of Education posted on its website the personal information of students who received an exemption from state testing. The names, date of birth, test scores and disabilities of these students were made public.
To get an exemption from the state test, the students waived their rights under federal privacy law, but the waiver typically means that their records will be released to education officials with a need to know, not to the public.
Legislators who complained were unsure whether this act was done out of ignorance or as retribution for students who might be challenging the state superintendent’s testing mandates.
If any state official was ignorant of state and federal law governing student privacy, they should be fired. If they acted out of malice, they should be fired.
What an outrage.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I thought I’d commented earlier…
Thank you for shining a light on what’s happening here. Your last statement is the most important…I believe this decision to publish student information was done with true malice, not ignorance.
We elected an anti-public education dentist as Superintendent of Pubic Education in OK, and here’s the results — a year-and-a-half of anti-teacher, pro-testing, pro-charters rhetoric. Her only experience in education was a short stint as a speech pathologist, and her service on the board of a charter school. She is so far into Jeb Bush’s back pocket that we only have to watch Florida to know what’ll be happening here.
And she has the arrogance to do this to our students-this act has destroyed lives of teenagers and their families.The only thing left off the public disclosure about these students were their addresses and phone numbers.
This is all a result of the current love affair with high stakes tests. In OK, students must pass 4 of 7 End-of-Instruction tests to graduate. This is the first year of punitive consequences.
In order to even appeal, students (or their parents) were forced by state law to waive their federal rights to privacy under FERPA. That, in itself, is probably against the law. We believe the only names that were released were students whose appeals were denied. That makes us think the entire purpose here was a deliberate attempt to bully and intimidate and threaten families. This was not a mistake. It’s part of a systematic attack, policy-by-policy, speech-by-speech, on public education in the state.
We hope, even though the website has removed the information, parents will sue. They will win any suit, since federal law (FERPA) overrides state law.
We who have been struggling with our own State Department of Public Education for so long truly appreciate your support and your outrage. Thank you for finding us!
Said so well and succinctly. “Fired.” Enough said.
Yes, I am OUTRAGED over how the students are being treated in Okalhoma. To me the SDE posted this information as a way to deter students from filing an appeal to obtain their diplomas. It is a sad day in the state of Oklahoma. I am grateful that the information was redacted, but the damage is already done. Our leaders need to let the OKSDE and our superintendent know that they crossed the boundaries of the law.
If you would like to see how the Florida Dept. of Education is providing misleading information on Florida’s Charter Schools see the article at
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-11/features/os-charter-schools-success-debate-20120511_1_traditional-public-schools-charter-students-national-charter-school-week.
Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in my state. We’re on the verge of a full out invasion of charter schools. The set up is in place with flat funding (read as a reduction of funding) to public schools and services. Our local schools are raising private money to save teaching positions. It is pathetic, but unfortunately the stage has been perfectly set for it to happen as the banter of “public schools are failing” has conveniently made its way into the psyche of the masses as a truism. “Why keep throwing money at a failed system?” Is the mantra of the general public as well as the state government. Instead, we need to cut personal income tax (read massive loss in revenue) to attract business to our state. I for one, can’t wrap my head around it.
The problem is not that our superintendent was a dentist by trade – she was also a special education ‘teacher’ for a time as well – the problem is that our superintendent wants to run the OSDE all by herself because she knows better about the needs of ALL students (having had two special education students herself) than anyone else in the entire state. She needs no permission, no advice, no consultation with teachers or others in the community, because those of us outside her cult of personality are ‘crazy’ – as I have been called by her more than once.
The other issue here is not that Oklahoma released student data, it was that Oklahoma did it so egregiously – other states are releasing information just as damaging, but under the radar in stealth mode. Oklahoma, like nearly every other state in the union, has something called a P20 Council (Pre-K – 20 years of age) which runs their State Longitudinal Data Base. The P20 Council is tasked with finding ways in which to collect private student data to be used in endless database searches in order to ‘inform’ and ‘improve’ learning.
Because of the changes in the FERPA laws this last January, private student data can now be shared in 11 different ways with just about anyone/agency where record sharing can be justified (rightly or not) WITHOUT STUDENT OR PARENT PERMISSION.
This move from educating students in basic skills inside a classroom with a caring, well-trained teacher means nothing anymore. Technology has become king and we will ALL lose our privacy because of this inane push for ‘accountability’. You may read more on this issue here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/94149078/An-Analysis-of-Recent-Education-Reforms-and-the-Resulting-Impact-on-Student-Privacy
[…] officials post records of all students with appeals online and commentary by Diane Ravitch, Outrage in Oklahoma. Unmentioned in the below is that all the students with appeals before the state board also had […]
Today, the State Board of Education is again hearing appeals. The board is angry. The superintendent is defensive. And this time, they are publicly discussing case numbers rather than names.
http://okeducationtruths.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/june-28-state-board-of-education-meeting/
All the attention this has received – both inside and outside of Oklahoma – has made a difference!