Owasso Independent School District No. I-011 v. Falvo
United States Supreme Court
534 U.S. 426 (2002)
Teachers in the Owasso Independent School District (defendant) commonly used peer grading, where students exchanged papers, scored them as the teacher reviewed correct answers, and sometimes announced scores aloud for the teacher to record; Kristja Falvo (plaintiff), whose three children were in classes using this practice, asked the district to ban it because she believed it embarrassed her children, and when the district declined, she sued alleging the practice violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The district court ruled for the school district, finding grades placed on papers by other students were not educational records, but an intermediate appellate court reversed, finding peer grading itself constituted an unlawful release of educational records.
Whether a student's assignment, while being graded by a fellow classmate as part of ordinary classroom instruction, constitutes an "educational record" protected from disclosure under FERPA.