Robert: Our son was given the Woodcock-Johnson IV, Tests of Achievement.
Long story, short…I wanted our son’s test protocols (written on by our son and his test examiner) to be reviewed by his psychologist. She is a licensed and trained psychologist in the state of Maryland. She wanted to see the raw output of our son and not the computer generated results.
When I inquired about the release of the written protocols, I was informed that, “Testing protocols are personal records of staff and are not a part of the student’s permanent record.”
It was my understanding that as this protocol contained personally identifiable information about our son, it was our parental right to examine them. It also seems strange that an assessment of our son is considered a personal record of staff.
Can the school district legitimately claim raw data from an assessment be considered the personal records of staff?
The school should be able to provide the raw data for the tests. YOu can always tell them you will have not choice but to get \an outside evaiuation at their expense if they cannot provide it so you can get raw data from that person. (you may want to do this anyway to compare if you do get the scores). I would suspect foul play if they don’t provide.
I believe that this is an example of what used to be known as the big lie. Recollection is, simply put, if your child’s name is on it, it is your child’s work, and it is shared (such as writing a report) then it is a student record, and you have a right to see it. I’ve gotten test protocols, and have scoring errors noticed and the like.
While you are asking to see the test protocols (in writing) you might want to add that you do not give permission to have them destroyed, since some places do that when parents start asking questions.