Professional Education Unit Assessment Data Collection, Storage, Access, and Use Policy

Policy Statement

Appropriate procedures to assure confidentiality must be used for the collection, storage, access, and use of Professional Education Unit (PEU) data for candidates and programs.

Purpose/Scope

These rules and regulations have been adopted by the Professional Education Council (PEC), the governing body of the PEU at SUNY Brockport, to:

• identify constituents who may collect, store, access and use PEU assessment data, and
• inform such constituents of acceptable and appropriate procedures for the collection, storage, access, and use of such data.

Data collected, stored, accessed, and used as part of the PEU’s ‘Continuous Improvement of Candidate and Student Learning’ (CICSL) assessment system, is done so exclusively to:

• assist the PEU in evaluating the effectiveness of the education preparation programs of the unit, and
• provide feedback assistance to individual professional education candidates enrolled or completing unit programs for the purposes of professional development.

Applicability

Anyone who accesses assessment data or information through the network, hardware, or software provided by SUNY Brockport must follow the related policies, purpose, principle, rules and regulations for PEU assessment data collection, storage, access and use.

Definitions

Administrator of the PEU -— Any SUNY Brockport personnel that serves an administrative function in the PEU.

University/Clinical Supervisors of the PEU — Any education professional hired by the programs of the PEU as a representative of SUNY Brockport to supervise and evaluate the performance of professional education candidates.

Continuous Improvement of Candidate and Student Learning (CICSL) — The assessment system of the PEU.

Faculty of the PEU — Any faculty that teaches required professional education preparation courses or advises candidates in education preparation in an academic department of the PEU.

Field/Site Supervisors of the PEU — Any education professional identified by programs of the PEU to supervise and evaluate the performance of professional education candidates in the field or clinical setting are considered to be ‘not outside the University,’ these include: School Based Teacher Educators (SBTE), School Based Literacy Educators (SBLE), Counselor Education Site Supervisor, and Education Administration Internship Field Supervisor.

PEU Assessment Committee — Committee of the Professional Education Council charged with the primary function to coordinate the collection, aggregation, analysis, and use of the data from a variety of sources related to the performance of the PEU, including data about applicant qualifications, candidate and graduate performance, and unit operations. (Governance Document of the Professional Education Unit – SUNY Brockport, 2005).

PEU Assessment Coordinator — Person hired by the PEU to coordinate the CICSL assessment system.

Point of Data Entry — Phrase describing how assessment data is entered into the assessment system. It reflects the transition to online administration of assessments which enables data to be collected and entered into the assessment system when it is collected, rather than the ‘paper and pencil’ method which requires manual entry of data at a later time. For example, the responses from participants in an online survey that are entered into the system as the participant completes and submits the survey are gathered at ‘point of entry,’ while paper and pencil surveys are physically collected and require a person to enter the data into the system. Data collection at point of entry eliminates human error that occurs with manual data entry and decreases the amount of time needed to get the data into the system.

Professional Education Candidate — A SUNY Brockport student officially enrolled in a professional education preparation program of the PEU.

Professional Education Council (PEC) — The governing body of the PEU at SUNY Brockport.

Professional Education Unit (PEU) — A SUNY Brockport unit comprised of the students, faculty, and administrators of programs on campus leading to the following: initial teacher certification, professional teacher certification, school counselor certification, and education administration certification in building and/or district leadership, as defined in the Governance Document of the PEU.

Policy Procedures

Data Collection

CICSL data collection will be in accordance with the Policy Statement. Data collection will be done through SUNY Brockport campus technologies using individual credentials (usernames and passwords). Communication with stakeholders (i.e., candidates, faculty, university/clinical supervisors, and field/site supervisors) will be done using official SUNY Brockport email addresses and not through personal or family-shared email accounts. Databases used to obtain contact information will be accessible via individual credentials only. Data collection will be done via point of data entry by PEU faculty, university/clinical supervisors, field/site supervisors, and professional education candidates.

Data Storage

CICSL data storage will be in accordance with the Policy Statement. The data will be stored using SUNY Brockport campus technologies only. CICSL data exported by users to individual university computers will not include private personal data, per the University’s policy, Maintaining the Security, Confidentiality & Integrity of Personal Information. Private personal data includes Social Security Number (SSN), date of birth, driver license number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and medical information. Data with personal identifying information will not be stored on laptop computers or any other mobile computing device (e.g.: floppy disk, CD, DVD, USB “flash” drive, PDA, etc.) under any circumstances, at any time.

Data Access

CICSL data access to individual data records will be in accordance with the Policy Statement. Such individual record data will not include personal identifiers (i.e., personal social security numbers, campus information system identification numbers, or professional education candidate names). Access to the data will be done through SUNY Brockport campus technologies using individual credentials. 

Access to stored individual record data used for program improvement will be granted to:

• The PEC and the subcommittees of the PEC.
• Faculty, university/clinical supervisors, and administrators of the PEU, and the University, by permission of the PEC.

Access to stored individual record data used for Professional Education Candidate development will be granted to:

• Professional Education Candidates. They will have access to their status and performance of required PEU assessments (technology support will be developed with current campus technologies).
• Faculty and university/clinical supervisors will have access to the status and performance of required PEU assessments on candidates they advise, teach, or supervise.
• Field/Site Supervisors will have access to their assessments of candidates who are officially under their supervision. They will only be granted access to other assessment data of the candidate if written permission is granted from the Professional Education Candidate.

Data Use

CICSL data usage will be in accordance with the Policy Statement. Usage other than for program improvement or assistance to individual candidates (i.e., professional development or advising) must only be done with Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Unauthorized disclosure of any personally identifiable student information outside of the University is in violation of University policy (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA], SUNY Brockport, II. B.1., July 2008). Any information in the candidate’s educational record is accessible to the professional education candidate and, therefore, is subject to the provisions of FERPA.

Use of aggregated program data will be available to the members of the PEU, SUNY Brockport, and the public, as determined by the PEC. Aggregated program data with less than ten candidates will be available for internal review by the PEC, the PEU Assessment Committee, and appropriate stakeholders identified by the PEU Assessment Committee. Aggregated program data with less than ten candidates will be omitted in public reports. 

Links to Related Procedures and Information

Disposition Policy Guidelines for Departments, Candidates, Faculty and Staff

E-mail and Network Policy

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Policy

Governance Document of the Professional Education Unit

Institutional Review Board - Quality Improvement Activities

Maintaining the Security, Confidentiality & Integrity of Personal Information 

Professional Dispositions for Teacher Education Candidates Policy

Contact Information

Director of Professional Education Unit

History (in descending order)

Approval

This policy was approved by President’s Cabinet on 2022-05-04