If a researcher requires identifiable student performance data, what regulation needs to be considered?

When a researcher requires identifiable student performance data, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations on educational records need to be considered. FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records and gives students certain rights regarding their data. This includes the requirement for educational institutions to obtain written consent from students before disclosing personally identifiable information from their education records.

In the context of research, if identifiable student performance data is involved, researchers must ensure compliance with FERPA's regulations to protect student privacy and maintain the integrity of educational data. This is crucial because the primary objective of FERPA is to prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of sensitive educational information.

While other regulations such as HIPAA pertain to health data and have their own privacy concerns, they do not apply directly to educational records. The Clery Act focuses on campus safety and crime statistics, and IRB guidelines are centered on ethical considerations for human subjects in research but do not specifically address educational record privacy. Thus, FERPA is the correct regulation to reference when dealing with identifiable student data in a research context.