High court debates the issue of student rights to privacy

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday explored whether letting one student grade another’s paper in class violates federal privacy law.

Teachers nationwide commonly tell students to swap homework, quizzes or other schoolwork and then correct one another’s work as the teacher goes over it aloud. Sometimes the teacher then has students call out the results, and the teacher records them.

The court is expected to rule next year in a lawsuit brought by a mother who says her reading-disabled son was ridiculed as a "dummy" when classmates heard his low score. Her lawsuit has become an ideological contest between the rights of parents and the rights of teachers to run their classrooms.

Kristja Falvo claimed that paper-swapping violated students’ civil rights, and won a lower court decision that banned classroom grading aloud as a violation of a 1974 law that gave parents veto power over the release of student education records.

The school district claims that teachers find the classroom grading method efficient and a way to help students learn from one another. Having each student grade his or her own paper would invite cheating, school groups say.

At issue for the Supreme Court is whether the results of a pop quiz or other classwork is considered an education record under the law. The Owasso, Okla., school district that Falvo’s children attend says such a broad interpretation could outlaw the school honor roll, or even the practice of working out a math problem on the blackboard.

Separately, the court abandoned plans Tuesday to rule on a major affirmative action case, Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Mineta, concluding the lawsuit involving a white-owned contractor wasn’t a good vehicle for deciding whether federal rules amount to reverse discrimination.

Opponents of racial preferences had hoped the court would use the 11-year fight over government highway contracts to effectively declare federal affirmative action programs unconstitutional.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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