Professor publicly posting grades for an online course?? (psychology, school, private) - Higher education - City-Data Forum

fierce_flawless · 07-19-2009, 05:20 AM

This doesn't seem right to me. I'm currently taking a summer internet course (Psychology), and we all had to post our essays to the discussion board. The professor has posted everyone's grades there for all to see. This can't be okay...???

There have been many other issues with this Prof. in this course and a horrible lack of professionalism (long story), but this one just blew me away and I wondered if anyone knew if there were commonly rules against this sort of thing.....? It's a community college, FWIW.

PurpleLove08 · 07-19-2009, 05:30 AM

That really isn't cool at all.
I'm sure it has to be against the university's policy and I would look into if I were you.

One of my professors once mentioned he couldn't ever post our grades online...

I doubt things are that different in Texas...

Eresh · 07-19-2009, 05:41 AM

That seems like a violation of FERPA. I would contact the prof's supervisor (probably the head of the psych department) about it.

PurpleLove08 · 07-19-2009, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eresh

That seems like a violation of FERPA. I would contact the prof's supervisor (probably the head of the psych department) about it.

I'm pretty sure I recall my professor mentioning that when he was talking about sharing grade info.

mm_mary73 · 07-19-2009, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

This doesn't seem right to me. I'm currently taking a summer internet course (Psychology), and we all had to post our essays to the discussion board. The professor has posted everyone's grades there for all to see. This can't be okay...???

There have been many other issues with this Prof. in this course and a horrible lack of professionalism (long story), but this one just blew me away and I wondered if anyone knew if there were commonly rules against this sort of thing.....? It's a community college, FWIW.

Let the professor know FIRST ASAP!!! It may be accidental and unintentional.

charolastra00 · 07-19-2009, 11:33 AM

That doesn't seem strange to me. Many of my exam grades are posted up in the departments by last name.

K-Luv · 07-19-2009, 12:12 PM

The public posting of grades used to be common practice. When I first went to college the grades were posted right outside of the classroom. That was about thirteen years ago. Nowadays, it seems as if everybody wants to keep their grades private. Most of my classmates take on a It's none of your business attitude unless they got an A.

WellShoneMoon · 07-19-2009, 01:10 PM

As far as I can tell (and I'm not an expert in this area of the law), this sounds like a violation of federal law, i.e., the Buckley Amendment, a/k/a/ the Family Educational Right to Privacy Act. That law provides that your grades cannot be released to a third party without your consent. You can read about it at the US Dept of Education website, Legislative History of Major FERPA Provisions. This public posting of grades may also be a violation of your state's laws too. I believe that FERPA applies to community colleges as well.

I haven't done any research into this area of the law, but I did teach at several major US universities (including law school) for many years, and I was always instructed by the university administration that we were prohibited by law from posting students' grades publicly. That includes posting grades using students' Social Security numbers, rather than names.

I would contact the professor and the department chairperson and politely request that grades not be posted publicly any more. If push really comes to shove, you can also file a complaint with the US Dept of Education, but I'd start with the professor and department chair first. This law has been around for a very long time, but I guess some people haven't caught on yet.

WellShoneMoon · 07-19-2009, 01:13 PM

Oh, and one other lesson I bitterly learned as a graduate student: don't complain until after final grades are turned in. I really did have a grade changed from an A to a C when I complained to the dept chair about a professor before the professor turned in final grades.

Alaskan Mutt · 07-19-2009, 01:39 PM

Sometimes this can work to your advantage. I had a professor leave everyones graded final exam on a chair outside his office. While looking for mine I spotted one for a person who had been a royal pain in my behind all year. When I found mine I saw that I got a higher grade than she did. So I slipped my test inside of her's for her to find.