Owasso Independent

School District No. I-011

v.
Krista J. Falvo,
Parent and Next Friend of her minor children,
Elizabeth Pletan, Philip Pletan and Erica Pletan

Argued November 27, 2001

Decided February 19, 2002
Shannon Hathcock – August 2021
 Background
Ms. Falvo’s three children attended Owasso
Independent School District during the
1997-98 and 1998-99 school years. Ms.
Falvo reported the practice of peer grading
of assignments was causing her children
severe embarrassment.. She requested the
school district to adopt a policy prohibiting
this practice claiming it violated the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

The school district’s response informed Ms.

Falvo that her children had the option of
reporting their scores to the teacher
confidentially.
United States District
Court for the Northern
District of Oklahoma
October 1998
United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma
Ruling- April 26, 1999
Ms. Falvo sought damages and
declaratory and injunctive relief against
the Owasso School District along with
school and district administrators.
She alleged the grading practices
violated FERPA and were
unconstitutional.
The district court decision was in favor
of the Owasso School District. The
court held that peer grading and asking
students to call out their scores did not
violate FERPA.
The court utilized the Department of
Education’s interpretation of
“educational records” to determine
whether or not homework assignments
were included in the student’s
confidential information.
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Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals
Rehearing denied: October, 2000
The court of appeals agreed with the
prior judgement of school work and
test scores did not meet the level of
protection from the constitution. It
was stated that the information was
not “highly personal” therefore it could
be disclosed to others.
A reversed judgement was also found
with the utilization of department of
education’s definition/interpretation of
“education records” and “maintain” as
it was clarified in previous cases held.
The findings were in agreement with
the previous court when it came to
determining if homework was
considered “education records.” The
reversal came with the interpretation
of “maintained … by a person acting for
the educational institution” as the
practice of recording score in a teacher
gradebook makes them a record and
the peer who graded the task was
acting for the school.
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United States Supreme Court
Argued November 27, 2001

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United States Supreme Court
Decision: February 19, 2002
The court unanimously agreed
that students grading each
others homework did not violate
FERPA. They concluded the
assignments did not meet the
definition of “education records.”
When considering whether or
not the assignments were
“maintained”, the court indicated
the peer did not have the
information long enough to meet
this threshold.
Finally, the court clarified that
students who grade each other’s
work did not establish them as a
person acting for the educational
agency per FERPA.
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 The Court's opinion provided schools guidance with
FERPA but did not address the greater topic of overall
confidentiality or public humiliation of students. Schools
may follow the most conservative reading which
prohibits posting student grades that are visible to other
students.

A study was conducted by Sadler and Good in 2006 which

examined the impact of peer grading on student
performance. Findings included patterns of bias present
within the peer grading. When students were retested,
the group of peer graders did not make significantly
more gains than the control group that did not grade
peer work. Students that self-graded performed
dramatically higher on the retest than others.

Impact on Schools Peer Grading

Decision-Making
References
• Owasso Independent School District No.
I-011 v. Falvo. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved July
25, 2021, from
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2001/00-
1073
• Owasso Independent School District No.
I-011 v. Falvo. United States Department
of Justice. Retrieved July 25, 2021, from
https://www.justice.gov/osg/brief/owass
o-indep-sch-dist-no-i-011-v-falvo-
invitation
• The Impact of Self- and Peer-Grading on
Student Learning. Sadler, Phillip M. and
Good, Eddie. Educational Assessment,
v11 n1 p1-31, 2006.
• Paper Swapping After Owaso v. Falvo.
NAIS. Retrieved August 6, 2021
from Microsoft Word - Paper Swapping
After Owasso v.doc (nais.org)

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