Assessment Data - Access and Storage

Related Policies:

Assessment Data – Collection and Use
Privacy

Purpose:

The purpose of the Policy is to:

• provide advice on appropriate procedures for the storage of assessment data in schools; and
• provide advice on appropriate access procedures in relation to issues of confidentiality.

Policy:

Materials and data, including reports generated from the ACT and the NSW Assessment Programs are to be treated as secure materials, documents, files and disks.

Principals or their nominee have the responsibility to ensure that records are stored in accordance with Principle 4 of the Privacy Act 1988.

Principle 4 is as follows:

“Storage and security of personal information.

A record-keeper who has possession or control of a record that contains personal information shall ensure:

[a] that the record is protected, by such security safeguards as it is reasonable in the circumstances to take, against loss, against unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure, and against other misuse; and
[b] that if it is necessary for the record to be given to a person in connection with the provision of a service to the record-keeper, everything reasonably within the power of the record-keeper is done to prevent unauthorised use or disclosure of information contained in the record .”

The following guidelines must be observed.

School

• All reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that electronic and hard copy information about students is securely stored and not misused.
• Normal practices with respect to the security of student records and delegation of authority should be clearly articulated in school policy statements.  

System

• Individual school data will be kept on confidential files maintained by the Central Registry.
• Electronic data on disk will be kept on confidential files maintained by the Central Registry.

Procedures:

Filing cabinets containing student record information will be locked when not under the direct supervision of authorized personnel.

Authority to access computer records must be clearly delegated and controlled by appropriate passwords.

Computers should be logged off when unattended or left on a screen for which a password is needed in order to access confidential information.

Loss or damage to records is to be treated as a serious occurrence. All instances of loss or damage to ACT and NSW Assessment Programs, materials, data and reports must be reported, in writing, to the Coordinator of Student Achievement at the Catholic Education Office.

Policy: Access

Individual

• Principals will ensure that authorized staff members are given appropriate access to all school held information so that they are able to make proper assessment of student performance.
• Adult students and parents have right of access to their own or their student's records respectively.
• Within a school, an individual's class or subject teacher and those staff members working directly with a student have right of access to that student's achievement information on a need to know basis.
• School staff members responsible for processing records and compiling data also have right of access to records.

Group or School Records

• Group records consist of statistical information about groups of students as, for example, a class, year level, gender or other demographic grouping, including combined criteria e.g. all girls in Year 7.
• School data and group data will be monitored within the school. The Principal, school staff and CEO officers and others with delegated responsibilities will have access to the data for use for school development purposes as outlined in the policy Assessment Data - Collection and Use.

System

The assessment records will be accessible to the CEO Heads of Division, those CEO officers directly responsible for supporting school development in curriculum and pedagogy, and those CEO officers responsible for monitoring and reporting student achievement.

Reports on particular aspects of student achievement will be published annually by the CEO. If a school or individual officer needs more information for planning purposes than is published in the reports, application should be made to the Head of the Education Services Division.

References:

Schedule A: NSW Schools Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Protocols for the Analysis and Reporting of External Testing Data

Schedule B: ACT Schools Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Protocols for the Analysis and Reporting of External Testing Data

Forms:

Nil

Last updated on December 2, 2006