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Introduction

FERPA: A Survey of Faculty and Staff Understanding at Marshall University Sonja G. Cantrell May 2013. Introduction. FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974) Also known as the Buckley Amendment (named after NY Senator, James L. Buckley)

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Introduction

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  1. FERPA: A Survey of Faculty and Staff Understanding at Marshall UniversitySonja G. CantrellMay 2013

  2. Introduction • FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974) • Also known as the Buckley Amendment (named after NY Senator, James L. Buckley) • Governed by United States Department of Education Family Compliance Office

  3. What does FERPA do? • Federal law that protects a student’s privacy in relation to their educational records, prohibits release of non-directory information and/or personal identifiable information derived from educational records. • Students have a right to review their academic records. • FERPA violations could result in loss of funding for financial aid and institutional/personal lawsuits.

  4. Study Rationale • Currently, no FERPA training for MU employees. • Need to determine the level of FERPA knowledge or awareness among the faculty and staff. • Imperative to determine the MU community understanding of FERPA.

  5. Research Problem • FERPA is a common concept on university campuses but typically there is a lack of FERPA knowledge among the faculty and staff; training to disseminate information to improve the knowledge level does not exist; essential to know MU community knowledge level.

  6. Research Questions • What is the overall FERPA knowledge level of MU faculty and staff? • What are the differences, if any, in the FERPA knowledge level of MU faculty and staff based on position, education level, and years of experience?

  7. Survey Instrument • Instrument includes three demographic questions related to participant age, employee status (faculty, staff, administrator) and years of higher education experience. • Twelve true and false questions focused exclusively on FERPA concepts; questions based a training guide (Ferpa Guide) from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and publications from United States Department of Education.

  8. Survey Design and Data Collection • Design • One-shot cross sectional survey • Online format via Qualtrics • 15 question survey • Data Collection and Analysis • Data collected : February 15-March 1, 2013. • Email sent with Qualtrics survey link to all full-time faculty and staff • Of 2437 surveys, 339 responded with 309 useable surveys (13.92 %response rate) • Chi Square Test

  9. Population and Sample • All full time faculty and staff with an active email address as of February 2013 (2437 potential participants) • Only fulltime employees with a Marshall email address in the faculty/staff directory (all exchange users) were surveyed • Graduate assistants, work-study students, and other non-full time employees without benefits

  10. Characteristics of Respondents • 135 (41%) of respondents were faculty; 136 (42%) were staff and 54 (17%) were administrators. • 85 (26.2%) of participants had a bachelor’s degree or less; 124 (38.2%) held a master’s degree and 115 (35.4%) held a masters degree or higher. • 149(46%) participants had ten years or fewer of experience in higher education, 88 (27%) had 11-20 years of experience and 87 (27%) had 21 years or more of higher education experience.

  11. Findings RQ1Overall Percent of Incorrect Responses

  12. Findings RQ2 Percent of Incorrect Responses by Position

  13. Findings RQ2 (cont.) Percent of Incorrect Responses by Educational Level

  14. Findings RQ2 (cont.) Percent of Incorrect Responses by Years of Higher Education Experience

  15. Conclusions • Overall: question 4, 9, 13 and 15 were answered incorrectly by more than 60% of the respondents; no remaining question had more than a 39% incorrect response rate. • Questions 7-11 revealed a significant difference between respondents based on position type.  For faculty-centered questions, faculty performed better than staff and/or administrators.  If a question related to student services, staff and administrators out-performed faculty.  • Respondents with Doctoral degrees did slightly better on the majority of questions than those Master’s degrees; overall respondents with Doctoral degrees and Master’s degrees preformed better than those with a Bachelor’s degree or lower. • Years of experience had little influence on participant performance.

  16. Recommendations/Implications • The implications for faculty and staff based on the FERPA key elements as addressed by the survey questions, the current level of knowledge and understanding is not at the level it should be for an institution of higher education. • Recommend development of a campus wide training program.

  17. Literature References • American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). (2006). FERPA Guide. Washington, DC: Author. • Campbell, E. (2011, December). Ferpa 101: Ferpa basics. Retrieved from www.ed.gov/fpco • Family Education Rights: Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974. (2012) 34 CFR § 99.31. • (logo)Marshall University. (n.d.) Retrieved July 12, 2012 from http://www.marshall.edu • Qualtrics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.qualtrics.com • http://www.wordle.net

  18. Questions

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