Agency predictive model documentation (Department of Education)

Dear Todd Feathers,
Thank you for your interest in public records of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  Your request has been received and is being processed.  Your request was received in this office on October 26, 2021 and given the reference number P001609-102621 for tracking purposes. To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, 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 models used by the agency. This includes predictive models built in-house as well as those built by vendors or used by agency employees through third-party software purchased by the agency.

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

2) Data dictionaries/libraries for each predictive model identified in response to part one of this request. Please note: Data dictionaries list the names of fields of data (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.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

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 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

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Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

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Hi Mr. Feathers,
Could you please give me an example of what you mean by predictive analytics model? Is there a particular data tool we use that you're interested in?
Jackie Reis
Media Relations Coordinator

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Thanks, Todd. That helps. I'll see what we have and will be in touch.
Jackie

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Hi Todd,
I've made a cover letter and four other files available to you through this records portal. One is an Excel file, and the others are PDFs. Please let me know if you can't access them or if you have any other questions.
Best wishes,
Jackie