Agency predictive model documentation (Georgia Department of Education)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) Executive summaries, algorithmic impact reports, predictive model reports, and/or model validation studies dating from Jan. 1, 2017 until the present for all predictive analytics tools and automated decision systems (ADS) used by the agency. This includes predictive models and ADSs built in-house as well as those built by vendors for the agency or those used by agency employees through third-party software.

2) All contracts and statements of work regarding the purchase and/or creation of tools identified in response to part one of this request.

2) A data dictionary/library for each predictive model and ADS identified in response to part one of this request. Please note: Data dictionaries list the names of data fields (i.e. column headers in a spreadsheet), they do not contain the actual data analyzed by models.

If you have any questions regarding this request, please don't hesitate to contact me for further clarification.

I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to use the requested records to publish articles in the public interest. In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.

Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of responsive documents, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

Hi Julie,

Thanks very much for the help on this. With regards to part one of the request, I don't have a comprehensive list of how the district may be using predictive analytics but it's likely for things like early warning systems to identify at-risk students, tools that predict which students will attend which college, or even predicting which teachers are likely to retire/leave their jobs.

There's a pretty wide range of use cases, so I apologize for the broad request. Anything you folks turn up will be helpful!

Best,
Todd

Thanks very much, Julie!

Todd