The Texas FERPA Story

1
The Texas FERPA Story
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Dan OBrien
• Texas Schools Project
• Texas Education Research Center
• University of Texas at Dallas
• obri_at_utdallas.edu

2
Introduction
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Texas Schools Project
• Harvard-UTD Schools Project
• Research focus
• Legacy data
• ID encryption
• TEA/THECB
• Additional data
• National Student Clearinghouse
• School districts

3
Texas Schools Project
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Researchers and results
• Hanushek AER
• Rivkin RESTAT
• Kain JHR
• Harvard (Hoxby, Jacob)
• PhD students and post-docs
• Guess who, MacGregor, Brian, Paco
• MKT and Kristin Klopfenstein
• www.utdallas.edu/research/tsp

4
Legacy to ERC
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Issues with Legacy approach
• Agency issues
• Workload
• Research capacity
• Confidentiality and legality
• Legislative Intervention
• Department of Education review
• UTD Education Research Center
• www.utdallas.edu/erc

5
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• History of FERPA
• The importance of access and privacy
• Parental access to education records
• Fundamental rights to privacy
• Uses of education data
• Example Teacher effectiveness measures
• Recent issues
• Identify theft

6
FERPA
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Administrators
• Understanding and compliance
• Policymakers and researchers
• Informing policy with research
• Individual student and classroom data
• Linked over years
• Interpretation and Enforcement
• Family Policy Compliance Office

7
State SystemsSource Committee on National
Statistics (CNSTAT-AERA)
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• North Carolina
• NCERDC (Duke, UNC, NCDPI)
• Encrypts IDs, checks for consistency and
  accuracy
• Merges across agencies and years
• Supports qualified researchers
• Michigan
• REL-Midwest
• MSU as agent of the state
• Responds to questions from Michigan Dept. of
  Education
• Linking longitudinally not currently possible
• Florida
• Follow up for students in education programs
• Merges and de-identifies data from multiple
  agencies

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Texas Education AgencyTexas Higher Education
Coordinating Board
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Establish up to three ERCs
• Direct joint supervision of the ERCs
• Establish a Joint Advisory Board (JAB)
• Reviews ERC management plans
• Allocation of research capacity
• Annual internal audit certification
• Annual budget
• Fundraising for ERC Support
• Approves research projects
• Provide individual longitudinal data

9
The Texas ERC Structure
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas
10
Data Flows
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas
11
ERC Responsibilities
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Conduct research for the benefit of education in
  Texas
• Conduct independent research
• Respond to public information requests
• Maintain ERC data and data security
• Data remains on site
• Provides processing capabilities for local and
  remote access researchers
• Ongoing Funding

12
Research Projects
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• ERC Review
• Requires longitudinal individual student data
• Benefits Texas education
• Methodologically sound
• Certification that resources are available
• Joint advisory board approval
• Research results
• Available to agencies
• ERC review for FERPA Compliance

13
Access
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Onsite data warehouse
• Data cleaning and maintenance
• Documentation
• Technical environment and controls
• Remote access
• Operating partners
• Quadrilateral agreement
• Bilateral operating agreement
• Cost sharing
• Annual Audit

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Summary
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• In general, the TEA and THECB appear to have
  developed a model approach for the conduct of
  independent education research in accordance with
  FERPA requirements. It also appears that ERC
  data will prove more valuable to researchers than
  what is available under current practices because
  longitudinal student information can be made
  available to the ERCs without having to address
  confidentiality issues associated with small data
  cells.
• Source Letter from the Family Policy Compliance
  Office

15
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• As such, we anticipate that the ERC approach will
  become the preferred method for conducting
  longitudinal educational research with State
  education data
• Source Letter from the Family Policy Compliance
  Office

16
ERC Operating Challenges
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Funding continuing operations
• Targeted grants for infrastructure funding
• Adding external data
• Student-teacher links
• Encouraging and supporting new research
• PhD students in Texas
• Out-of-state and Non-IHE Access
• Affiliation approach

17
UTD-ERC Structure
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas
18
TSP and UTD-ERC Funding
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Research projects
• Historically the only source of operating funds
• ERC
• CALDER
• TQ-Spencer, Smith Richardson, Hewlett
• THSP
• Technical Assistance
• McFarlin/Paco
• Evaluations
• College Transitions,CT,EFS,LTF

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Infrastructure Funding
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Foundation funding focus
• Topic of interest
• Principal researcher
• Research results
• Packard Humanities Institute
• Five year request
• Two-three year current commitment
• Future funding dependent on effectiveness
• Research results

20
The Texas FERPA Story
Texas Schools Project The University of Texas at
Dallas

• Dan OBrien
• Texas Schools Project
• Texas Education Research Center
• University of Texas at Dallas
• obri_at_utdallas.edu