Solomon - Final ReflectionDecember 8, 2014

Lessons Learned

I completed my internship at School District 5 of Lexington and Richland Counties (School District 5). My project focus was K-12 student data and the legal and ethical application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

My goals for this internship were to develop and refine my knowledge, skills, and ability to:

Comprehend current government (FERPA) guidelines as they relate to K-12 Educational student data.

Research, summarize and evaluate varied interpretations of FERPA’s complex guidelines

Design and develop a professional development module which instructs school registrars on the legal application of FERPA

Design and implement an evaluation tool to aid in retention and provide feedback regarding the success of the professional development objectives.

My research, as documented in my annotated bibliography, uncovered an abundance of federal and private resources which document the FERPA regulations. Comprehending the intricacies of the 1974 FERPA legislation was one of my essential goals, however compiling the varied interpretations of the 1974 act was fascinating.

FERPA ensures that student’s personal information is controlled by parents or students of eligible age. At its most basic level, it limits disclosure of student data to “directory data” or that data which is deemed harmless. Since 1974, technology has significantly expanded the release of educational data and student information to the public. In response, the US Government has enacted several amendments to the original FERPA.

I’ve learned that supplemental safeguards and new legislation is necessary to meet the increasing challenges of maintaining data privacy. Most recently, Senators Edward J. Markey and Orrin Hatch introduced the 2014 U.S. Protecting Student Privacy Act. This act attempts to set limits on the use of students’ personal data for marketable purposes.

During my research I read journal articles, blog entries, USDE official Forum Guides and even interviewed the Chief Information Security and Data Governance Officers at the SCDE. Each resource provided additional insight into the application of FERPA in education settings. Most were positive about FERPA’s influence while pointing out that many more safeguards are necessary.

J. Bathon’s article, How Little Data Breaches Cause Big Problems, published in the T H E Journal, discusses legal issues in the U.S. education sector in 2013 involving the data security of students. This article exposes the legal liabilities that could be imposed on

schools who do not adequately secure student data. Because of the significant increase in data breaches, the U.S. Department of Education established the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) to help schools and school districts institute data privacy, confidentiality and security practices.

One of the most valuable lessons learned during my internship is that research can take on a life of its own. Though I felt that I had limited my topic sufficiently, I learned that too much time can be spent on research, ultimately de-railing your project schedule - leaving less time for design and development.

Difficulties you encountered and the conclusions you have reached as a result

It was very difficult to maintain the schedule as planned. My responsibilities at the district grew exponentially, leaving no time for internship research and project development during my work day. All of the research, planning and training development for this class was completed on my personal time; at home or at a location that offered Wi-Fi.

I found the mentor component of this project exciting; a mentor not only helps you to shape your project, but also helps put you in touch with internal personnel. Unfortunately, my mentor had to take several weeks of extended leave and was not available onsite during most of the internship period. I was able to confer with her on a few occasions. In her absence I discuss the training content and project specifics with the district’s PowerSchool Coordinator. Because I am a new employee of the Lexington 5 district, it was very important that I be able to speak with other persons with historical knowledge of the district policies and specific applications of FERPA.

I also learned how essential it is to understand the internal politics, policies and hierarchy at your place of employment. For example, the Public Information Division at School District 5 must approve my training materials and presentation prior to training being allowed to take place. For this reason several components of my training plan are developed but have not been disseminated or made public. I anticipate an early spring training event following the necessary approval of content.

Successes you achieved and the new insights you have gained from achieving them

I was careful to define goals that I felt would be achievable in the time period allowed. In addition I attempted to limit my objective to an area that is specific and very much related to my current responsibilities. I was successful in achieving the majority of my stated goals.

I feel quite accomplished at comprehending the FERPA guidelines as they relate to K-12 Educational student data. Research clarified my understanding of the essential definitions and annual parent disclosure requirements. I do believe that more information could be made available on our district website. Parents should be able to easy find the district’s policies related to the definitions of directory information and that they have the right to opt-out of directory information release. Using the ADDIE framework, I successfully analyzed the needs of the school registrar’s via a pre training survey created with Survey Monkey. The development of an introductory PowerPoint module which defines and explains the FERPA guidelines is complete. A module which provides specific PowerSchool data entry and distribution is also planned but not complete. I continue to plan additional modules which address general student data privacy issues.

Strong emotions you experienced and why

I will use the word overwhelmed to describe the most prevalent emotion I experienced during my internship. I felt overwhelmed by the additional workload, overwhelmed by the quantity of research undertaken, overwhelmed by the desire to create an exceptional training product, and overwhelmed by my desire to provide our registrars the tools and knowledge to good stewards of student data. Though I feel my efforts were successful in many areas, I am disappointed that the training content has not been delivered yet. I also am anxious to expand the training to include the other content discussed.

Things I would do differently next time and why

I should have immediately surveyed the registrars regarding their expectations and thoughts on the topic I wanted to address. I initially spent a great deal of time analyzing journal articles and researching aspects of FERPA from 1974 to today’s application in an educational setting. When I finally was able to address the registrars directly, they appeared desperate for guidance regarding the distribution of data during their day to day responsibilities.

The registrars are often the school person with the most immediate access to student information at the school. They were unanimous in their desire to safeguard student privacy, however, were unclear as to which information could be shared with school administrators and other educational professionals. This concept of student privacy is a great deal more encompassing than FERPA alone. As my target audience, the registrar’s specific needs and requests should have driven my initial research and instructional planning of the project.

Interesting ways your experience relates to previous course work --especially unexpected or conflicting results

In planning and developing my training I drew upon my experience with ADDIE. Of course, my experience to this point has all been within and closed educational environment. During my internship I experience the non-linear application of the ADDIE framework. It was wonderful to have the guidance and touchstones of ADDIE; analyze, design, develop, implement to re-center my effort when I felt a bit lost in the process.

In so many of the courses taken for this degree I have been exposed to wonderful development tools. I relied on earlier experience with PowerPoint, SpiceyNodes, Jing, Slideshare, audacity, Paint and a few web 2.0 graphics tools to develop elements of my training, I’d hoped to incorporate multimedia in a much grander scale (Camtasia) so that the training would be more engaging, however time limitations limited this.

Overall self-evaluation

It has been a frustrating effort at times because of the inability to complete content while at my work place; however I am very pleased with the successes I did achieve. This experience has solidified the knowledge gained in previous coursework. I am proud of my efforts and am determined to deliver the current content to my target audience, school registrars. I hope to be allowed to pursue the development of the additional planned modules. It feels very satisfying to identify a need, commit to developing the necessary content and follow through. Thank you for this experience.