Buckley Backfire

Student records are not confined to dry listings of grades, IQ scores and other statistics. They often bulge with personal information--much of it unsubstantiated--such as the political and sexual leanings not only of the student but also of his parents. Ever since the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act went into effect in late 1974, these records have been kept under deep cover. The files can no longer be released to outsiders without permission of the student or his parents. Moreover, the new law denies federal funds to any school or college that does not allow parents to inspect, challenge, or refuse public use of their children's school records.

On the surface, the law, pushed through Congress by New York Senator James Buckley, is a major victory for student rights. Yet many educators are now complaining that the legislation, in addition to giving them headaches, has harmed their students more than it has helped them.

The biggest change brought about by the Buckley law is in the letters of recommendation that high school principals, teachers and guidance counselors write to colleges. Now that parents (and their lawyers) can see the records, high school officials have become more wary of writing negative letters; they fear that they will be sued. At San Rafael High School near San Francisco, some teachers now write "I won't answer this because of the Buckley law" across the letter forms. At Lee High School, in New Haven, Conn., Laura Stewart, head of the guidance department, refuses to check the "I do--do not--recommend this student" on the forms. Explains Joseph Doohan, principal of Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, N.Y.: "Many teachers aren't interested in getting into the hassle that might come from honest but critical assessments."

Many colleges, in turn, are looking suspiciously at the letters that come in. Harold Doughty, director of admissions at New York University, notes that "recommendations are more bland, less reliable and less frank." Says Richard Lyman, president of Stanford University: "Letters of recommendation, one suspects, have long been subject to a debasement of the coinage. And how-the drive to make them freely available to the persons about whom they are written seems perfectly designed to administer the coup de grace."

Ego Boost. As a result, colleges are forced to place greater emphasis upon test scores. Says Fred Jewett, dean of admissions at Harvard: "This could hurt the nontraditional candidate. Tests may not be as good a measure of his academic performance as other things, such as comments from teachers who know his work." Indeed students, the supposed beneficiaries of Buckley's efforts, do not seem overwhelmingly grateful for the law. A few, like Wilma Schiller at Brown University, have asked to see their records "as an ego boost after the debacle of exams"; others want to make sure their recommendations are fair. But at some schools the majority of students have signed waivers (legal under an amendment to the Buckley law) giving up their right to see the letters of recommendation. At Columbia University 125 students out of a total of 15,700 have asked to see their files since the Buckley law went into effect. Across the nation, only 100 complaints have been lodged with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which is charged with regulating the law; most of these involve denial of access to records or unauthorized disclosure of the files.

One area where the Buckley law seems to be working as intended is in protecting student privacy. Colleges are no longer required to hand over files at the request of the Army, the FBI, probation officers or the police. In fact, the only major lawsuit resulting so far from the new law was filed in behalf of Mexican-American children in California. Under state law, the superintendent of schools was required to turn over certain school records to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service; this aided agents searching for illegal aliens. But a Los Angeles judge ruled that the Buckley law superseded the state law and ordered the superintendent to keep the records secret--setting what educators hope is an important precedent.

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