Educational Data Request Policy and Procedure

The Integrated Core Team (ICT) processes requests for educational data in the UCSF School of Pharmacy submitted by faculty, trainees, researchers, and staff.

Submit a data request

Purpose

To manage requests for data owned, stewarded, and maintained by the School of Pharmacy in a manner that protects learner confidentiality and fosters the use for the improvement of our educational programs and educational research.

Background

The UCSF School of Pharmacy (SOP) oversees a repository of data available for use in program evaluation, quality improvement, and educational research.

The SOP is committed to ensuring the confidentiality of learner data and adhering to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) law.

While resident and fellow learners are not protected by FERPA, the SOP respects the privacy of all learners according to FERPA guidelines.

The SOP is committed to making educational data available to further innovation and improvement of our programs.

The SOP prioritizes routine data outputs and requests as follows:

  • Standing data requests that are required for programmatic and student progression monitoring, quality improvement, and accreditation-related requirements
  • Data requests for education research

Policy

Data requests

All data requests must be made through an online data request form: Submit a data request.

All data requests must include the reason the data is needed, type of data needed, period of time data will be used, and how the data will be secured.

Data consultations

The requesting party must consult with a representative of the Integrated Core Team (ICT) before making a request on issues such as:

  • Clarification of the type of data requested.
  • Confirmation of the availability of data.
  • Review and clarification of data security and confidentiality requirements.
  • Clarification of intent of educational research.
  • Clarification of intent of continuous improvement work.

Data security

All requestors and staff releasing data to requesters must follow best practices for complying with FERPA and UCSF minimum security standards for electronic information found at FERPA & Privacy as well as the UC campus policy at Student Records.

Data must be stored in accordance with UCSF minimum security standards for electronic information.

Access to data

The Didactic Education Team will provide access to educational data for which the SOP is the primary owner as permitted by School and University Policy. The Didactic Education Team in consultation with the SOP Education Administration Team retains the right to prioritize the fulfillment of data requests based on current priorities and the complexity of the request and to refuse any data requests.

Students will not be able to access the demographic information and performance data of students in their own cohort.

Research data requests

Approval by the UCSF Institutional Review Board (IRB) is required prior to the release of any data used for education research. Data requests can be made prior to IRB approval but data will only be released with IRB approval.  Please note that ICT does not have the authority to grant requestors permission to use program data.

Any changes to the IRB protocol including changes to the research team membership must be shared promptly with the Data Management and SOP Education Administration Teams.

Any data sharing with investigators outside of UCSF must be approved by both the IRB and Didactic Education Team and comply with current University policies on data sharing.

The SOP reserves the right to refuse to release data that would compromise the school, its faculty, and/or learners.

Procedure

Request process

All data requests must be made using the online data request form at Submit a data request.

Consultations

Consultations with the SOP Manager of Didactic Education Team are required for all requests. All consultations will be documented by the Didactic Education Team.

Request turnaround time

Data request turnaround times will be negotiated with the requester based on the current workload.

Data formats

Data will be provided in de-identified formats with unique identifiers where appropriate.

Data can be provided in multiple file formats including comma separated values (CSV), spreadsheet formats, SPSS, or text documents.

Third-party data

If the requestor has third-party data that must be incorporated into an education data set and then de-identified, there may be a delay for this service.

The requestor is responsible for obtaining third-party data to be incorporated into pharmacy education data sets.

UCSF Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Data requestors are responsible for obtaining necessary approvals from the UCSF Institutional Review Board (IRB) and providing proof of approval along with a copy of the IRB protocol as part of the SOP data request and prior to receiving data. This information can be forwarded in an email to the Didactic Education Team.

Footnotes and data classifications

For the purposes of educational data requests, data are classified into the following categories.

  1. Learner demographics: Includes descriptive data about learners (e.g., year in program, graduation date, age, URM status, undergraduate institutions, etc.)
  2. Learner performance: Includes learner academic achievement prior to and during enrollment, and after matriculation from a degree or post-graduate training program (e.g., admission data, internal and external examination scores, assessment of learner performance, learners’ summative portfolios).
  3. Program performance: Data on satisfaction with the School of Pharmacy curriculum, programs, and faculty/non-faculty teaching (e.g., program, course, and faculty evaluations, AACP Graduating Senior Survey data) and data from surveys and research conducted by the School of Pharmacy faculty and students on SOP programs that are not a part of routine program evaluation.

Approval date and governing body: 01/19/2020, CEPC; revised 2/10/2021