Faculty evaluations and public records

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Faculty evaluations on an individual basis are generally not available through public records. According to the Student Press Law Center, "some schools — public and private — make available the general, collective results of students' faculty evaluations, which are sometimes published in the school's student newspaper or other publication, many will not disclose results of individual faculty member evaluations. In fact, it is often only a handful of top-level school administrators who are provided access to the actual results of the student evaluations, in addition to the faculty member who can usually review his or her own evaluations."

While this protects the teachers' privacy and ensures that the evaluation process is honest, it can also exacerbate problems through secrecy. Serious problems that reveal themselves in employee evaluations can be concealed.The negative results include substandard preparation for college for high school students, and the cost of thousands of dollars for an education from incompetent or indifferent professors for college students.

The Student Press Law Center suggests teacher rating websites as a possible alternative to official evaluations.

State disclosure requirements

State	Are teacher evaluations public record?	Statute/court case/bill
Alabama		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Alaska	Yes	Municipality of Anchorage v. Anchorage Daily News, 794 P.2d 584, 595, n.13 (Alaska 1990). Alaska Supreme Court stated that performance evaluations of public officials who exercise discretion in their duties are, as a matter of law, subject to release as public records.
Arizona	No
Arkansas	Records are presumed to be exempt from disclosure under the state open records law. On a case-by-case basis, balancing test decides.	Ark. Code Ann. sec. 25-19-105
California	Yes
Colorado	Yes	Colo. Rev. Stat. sec. 24-72-202(4.5); Denver Post v. University of Colorado, 739 P.2d 874 (Colo. App. 1987)
Connecticut	Partial	Conn. Gen. Stat. sec. 10-151 exempts any records of teacher evaluations kept on file by a local or regional board of education from public disclosure under the state Freedom of Information Act unless the teacher agrees in writing to make the records public. The law covers evaluation records of every certified school employee below the rank of superintendent.
Delaware	No	Evaluation information is considered an invasion of privacy under the state's law.
Florida	Yes	State law prevents the release of individual evaluations until a year after they are completed.
Georgia	No
Hawaii		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Idaho		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Illinois	No	Faculty evaluations are exempt under the law.
Indiana		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Iowa	Balancing test determines whether records are public.	Iowa Code sec. 22.7(11) (1991); City of Dubuque v. Telegraph Herald, Inc., 297 N.W.2d 523 (Iowa 1980)
Kansas	Partial	K.S.A. 45-221(a)(4)
Kentucky		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Louisiana	Partial	Op. Att'y Gen. 85-724; Trahan v. Larivee, 365 So.2d 294 (La. App. 3rd Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 366 So.2d 564 (La. 1979)
Maine		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Maryland		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Massachusetts	Partial	Connolly v. Bromery, 15 Mass. App. 661, 447 N.E.2d 1265 (1983); Wakefield Teachers Assn. v. School Comm. Of Wakefield, 431 Mass. 792 (2000)
Michigan	Yes	In Bradley, supra, the Michigan Supreme Court found that performance evaluations of teachers are not "counseling" evaluations and that the exemption was not applicable when the requester asked for records of a particular individual.
Minnesota		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Mississippi		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Missouri	Partial	Mo. Rev. Stat. sec. 610.021(13)
Montana	Records presumed open. Balancing test determines whether records are public.	Montana Human Rights Division v. City of Billings, 199 Mont. 434, 649 P.2d 1283 (1982)
Nebraska		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Nevada		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
New Hampshire		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
New Jersey		Teacher evaluations may not be made public according to the Teach NJ Act passed in August 2012.
New Mexico		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
New York	Yes. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Program Bill 48 to require public disclosure of aggregated data from annual teacher performance reviews and limited disclosure of individual reviews to parents upon request."Gov. Cuomo Signs Teacher Evaluation Bill," Society for Human Resource Management, July 19, 2012	Blecher v. Board of Education, N.Y.L.J., Oct. 25, 1979 (Sup. Ct. Kings Co. 1979); Anonymous v. Board of Education for Mexico Central, 616 N.Y.S.2d 867 (Sup.Ct., Oswego Co. 1994)
North Carolina		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
North Dakota	Yes	Hovet v. Hebron Public School District, 15 Med. L. Rptr. 1118 (February 2, 1988)
Ohio	Yes	State ex rel. James v. Ohio State University, 637 N.E.2d 911 (Ohio 1994); Dove v. Allen Co. Educ. Serv. Ctr., 118 Ohio App.3d 102 (1997).
Oklahoma		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Oregon		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Pennsylvania	Presumably open.	Via the Student Press Law Center, "In a 1990 case [...] a private university [...] creatively argued that its First Amendment right of academic freedom would be infringed if forced to disclose peer review (evaluation) documents to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.[Univ. of Pennsylvania v. E.E.O.C., 493 U.S. 182 (1990)] [...] The U.S. Supreme Court found that the requested information did not relate to the right of the university to make tenure decisions on academic grounds, and thus, did not infringe on the school's 'academic freedom.' Urofsky v. Gilmore, 216 F.3d 401 (4th Cir. Va., 2000).
Rhode Island	Partial
South Carolina		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
South Dakota		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Tennessee	Mixed. Legislation passed in 2012 suggests "no." TN education commissioner says evaluation information without teacher ID will be released, ID requests will be reviewed caase-by-case.
Texas		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Utah	State law leaves it to government entities' discretion.
Vermont	No	Employee evaluations are considered exempt under personnel information exemptions.
Virginia		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law
Washington	Depends	High-level employee (ex. City manager) evaluations presumed public. Disclosure of other employee performance evaluations considered an invasion of privacy.
West Virginia	Balancing test determines whether records are public. Court rulings in West Virginia have made it less likely that a request for faculty or teacher evaluations will be granted.	W.Va. Code sec. 18-29-3; Smith v. Bradley, 223 W.Va. 286 (2007)
Wisconsin	Balancing test determines whether records are public. Court rulings in Wisconsin have made it less likely that a request for faculty or teacher evaluations will be granted.	Wisconsin State Journal v. University of Wisconsin, 18 Med. L. Rptr. 1872 (January 29, 1991); Wisconsin Newspress, Inc. v. School Dist. of Sheboygan Falls, 199 Wis.2d 768 (1996).
Wyoming		Not specifically mentioned in state public records law