[harry]

Yup. Faculty don't like you pointing this out and actually complain loudly to the Provost level administration at a University when it is done so. Here's what happened to me a few years ago:

I created a web app at the request of one of the schools & deans at the University I work for. (I do stats/database reporting full time.) It was wildly popular with students for enrollment purposes. After a few days it got shut down by a direct Provost order. The faculty did not like it being so easy to compare their grades with their colleagues on "identical classes" (large foundational courses math and science) and worried that it would damage departmental and eventually school reputation.

Personally I thought it was bullshit to take down (not only because I worked so hard on it and it was fuckin cool.) The data is released to companies (by way of an Open Records Request) that make money by selling "pick the best professor for this class" rankings to naive students.

Our research department devoted resources to making the application because we thought making the data easy to use and public would in fact CORRECT for grade inflation over time. Basically, I feel that the old way has to die off before any changes will be made and there's some pretty big changes looming for higher ed in the future.

[nowarninglabel]

Coming off a three-year stint working for a University, I would have to agree that the old ways have to die before change can come about. University bureaucracies are built on the idea of long-standing tradition (even tenure promotes the idea of no change), so when change comes, the administration fights it. Especially, if that change involves opening data up that could somehow in their minds potentially embarrass them.

[Jach]

If you're just storing non-personal statistics on grades for courses of professors, how can they actually shut you down? I know there are lots of "Professor Review" sites out there, so is it just the grades aspect? I don't remember signing anything at my college that says I can't give out grade info, but I may be mistaken.

[anamax]

> If you're just storing non-personal statistics on grades for courses of professors, how can they actually shut you down?

"I created a web app at the request of one of the schools & deans at the University I work for."

The provost has some authority over the deans and schools. Since the application is "owned" by his employer....

Yes, maybe he could continue it "on the side" but he may want to stay employed and if he got the grade information from the school, they can probably shut that down

[harry]

Yeah, University employees are contractually held to a non-compete agreement which would prolly break down here when brought to general counsel.

The grade distribution information is not considered restricted under any FERPA or other policy, but it is considered 'sensitive' and requires an external party to jump through quite a few legal hoops to access.

Edit: I serve at the behest of the Provost. So that was basically the boss/boss saying "we made a mistake, please take that down."

[chopsueyar]

Transparency leading to reform.

I am sorry this did not work out.

[harry]

The idea's still there in the administration tho. It's the Faculty who need to quit being butthurt about it.

Generalizing: Working with leading faculty is a bit like working with the 'always answers in snippits' students from highschool 40 years later in their life. Procrastinate, panics when something isn't the way they expect it, and genuinely quirky. All it takes is one noisy tenure to make a stink to a VP/P and many things get shut down.

Maybe in a decade when the damage grade inflation has done to accreditation and the value of a degree becomes apparent the faculty will allow for this type of thing to exist.