But the Education Department updated its rules in 2008, allowing schools to disclose student information to contractors and other outside parties to whom they outsource school functions — without notifying parents.
"It frustrates law enforcement people and district attorneys," Mr. Worona said, but he added that schools face severe consequences if they wrongfully disclose student information, making them vulnerable to civil-rights lawsuits.
Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to dismiss an April ruling that required the voucher program to regularly disclose student data to the federal government.
This can reveal relations and trends specific to each of the disclosed student clusters, hence the strategies to tackle dropout or underachievement.
There are no student, school or district (only state) scores, so there is no pressure to drill and the test can disclose what students really know.
So the bureau could ask every college and university to disclose its students' federal and private loan default rates on its financial aid applications and enrollment forms, along with averages from a group of similar schools.
The industry fought not only against the measures and penalties in the rule, but even against being required to disclose to students truthful information about the costs and benefits of their programs.
Generally, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Ferpa, passed in 1974, makes it illegal to disclose a student's records to family members without the student's authorization.
CollegeQuest.com, a site run by Peterson's, a large educational publishing company, says it may disclose a student's contact information to "carefully selected partners" unless the student says otherwise.
"Colleges can disclose a student's private records if they believe there's a health and safety emergency, but that health and safety exception hasn't been much tested in the courts, so it's left to be figured out case by case," Ms. Fleming said.
