Student Predictive Analytics Services docs
It is a clone of this request.
| Tracking # |
2023-01-09 56-23 56-23 |
| Submitted | Sept. 6, 2023 |
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Communications
From: Todd Feathers
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act, I hereby request records related to student predictive analytics services used by the district.
For the purpose of this request, the term "student predictive analytics services" means software or computer code that employs machine learning models to generate predictions about individual students or groups of students for one or more of the following purposes:
a) To generate predictions about students' likelihood of dropping out or graduating (these tools are sometimes called early warning systems).
b) To generate predictions about students' likely performance in individual classes, honors or AP programs, and/or on standardized tests (including state assessments, the ACT, SAT, etc.)
c) To generate predictions about students' attentiveness and/or emotional wellbeing.
d) To generate predictions about students' behavior and/or safety (e.g. whether a student is at risk of harming themself or others)
e) To generate predictions that are used to determine whether students are placed in special schools, programs, and/or classes.
My request applies to student predictive analytics services used by the district during the 2022-23 academic year, including those developed in-house by the district, purchased from a vendor, or provided by another agency (e.g. the state department of education or a university).
I request:
1) All contracts and statements of work between the district and outside parties for student predictive analytics services that the district used during the 2022-23 academic year.
2) Records defining the input variables and their weights/relative power for each student predictive analytics service the district used during the 2022-23 academic year (In other words, records defining the data points fed into each predictive model and their respective impacts on the model's output).
3) Records documenting the accuracy (AUC, true/false positive, specificity, lift, etc.) of each student predictive analytics service the district used during the 2022-23 academic year.
4) Any validation studies, disparate impact studies, or other records documenting differences in how the student predictive analytics services the district used during the 2022-23 academic year performed across student groups (e.g. Black students vs. Hispanic students, male students vs. female students).
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 about the operations of a government agency. If you choose to impose fees, I ask that you provide an explanation of the fees, including the hourly wage of the lowest-paid employee capable of fulfilling the request.
If you choose to reject this request or redact portions of responsive documents, I ask that you cite the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each portion from public review.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Todd Feathers
From: Scranton School District
Good Morning Mr. Feathers;
Attached is a 30 day extension letter for your Right to Know requests
(2023-01-09
56-23) that you submitted to the Scranton School District on Thursday,
September 7, 2023.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Bert Gentilezza
--
Thank you,
Bert Gentilezza
Director of Compliance
Administration Building
425 N. Washington Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
P: (272)235-5524
F: (570)348-3618
robert.gentilezza@s <robert.gentilezza@scrsd.org>sdedu.org
*This email message may contain confidential information. If the reader of
this message is not the intended recipient, please note that reading,
copying, or distributing this message is prohibited. If you have received
this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email.*
From: Scranton School District
Good Afternoon Mr. Feathers;
Please find the response information regarding your Right to Know
Request 2023-01-09
56-23 that you submitted to the Scranton School District on Thursday,
September 7, 2023.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you!
Bert
--
Thank you,
Bert Gentilezza
Director of Compliance
Administration Building
425 N. Washington Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
P: (272)235-5524
F: (570)348-3618
robert.gentilezza@s <robert.gentilezza@scrsd.org>sdedu.org
*This email message may contain confidential information. If the reader of
this message is not the intended recipient, please note that reading,
copying, or distributing this message is prohibited. If you have received
this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email.*
From: Todd Feathers
Hello Bert,
Thank you very much for your help with this request. I just wanted to make sure that the district is still processing the remainder of the request. While the information you provided is very helpful and responsive, I had requested the following records pertaining to each of the tools you identified:
1) All contracts and statements of work between the district and outside parties for student predictive analytics services that the district used during the 2022-23 academic year.
2) Records defining the input variables and their weights/relative power for each student predictive analytics service the district used during the 2022-23 academic year (In other words, records defining the data points fed into each predictive model and their respective impacts on the model's output).
3) Records documenting the accuracy (AUC, true/false positive, specificity, lift, etc.) of each student predictive analytics service the district used during the 2022-23 academic year.
4) Any validation studies, disparate impact studies, or other records documenting differences in how the student predictive analytics services the district used during the 2022-23 academic year performed across student groups (e.g. Black students vs. Hispanic students, male students vs. female students).
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss the request further, and thank you again for your help!
Todd
From: Scranton School District
Hello Todd;
I have sent out your request to all parties that would be affiliated with
this request.
I will be sure to send you anything else that comes my way.
Thanks,
Bert
--
Thank you,
Bert Gentilezza
Director of Compliance
Administration Building
425 N. Washington Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
P: (272)235-5524
F: (570)348-3618
robert.gentilezza@s <robert.gentilezza@scrsd.org>sdedu.org
*This email message may contain confidential information. If the reader of
this message is not the intended recipient, please note that reading,
copying, or distributing this message is prohibited. If you have received
this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email.*
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Pennsylvania Right to Know Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 6, 2023. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Oct. 27, 2023. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date. You had assigned it reference number #56-23.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Scranton School District
request response was sent on 9.13.23
As I mentioned that is all I had to report
--
Thank you,
Bert Gentilezza
Director of Compliance
Administration Building
425 N. Washington Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
P: (272)235-5524
F: (570)348-3618
robert.gentilezza@s <robert.gentilezza@scrsd.org>sdedu.org
*This email message may contain confidential information. If the reader of
this message is not the intended recipient, please note that reading,
copying, or distributing this message is prohibited. If you have received
this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email.*
From: Scranton School District
Request submitted on 9.13.23
No other information was provided
From: Todd Feathers
Thank you, Bert, while this document is helpful, it isn't responsive to a public records request.
I'm still awaiting the actual contracts, statements of work, accuracy and validation reports, and other responsive records associated with the tools you listed.
Thank you,
Todd
From: Scranton School District
It looks like this agency uploaded responsive documents to a portal or link sharing site. Our team is working on moving them over, so please check back soon.
Scranton __ Panorama -Service Order .docx (1).pdf
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z1CmU_fqm82NteX_Wcs0n6oLVJZo30Jq/view?usp=drive_web>
No contract or agreement for PVAAS or PAYS. They are generated as free
services for all districts from the state.
This is all I have to offer to you.
--
Thank you,
Bert Gentilezza
Director of Compliance
Administration Building
425 N. Washington Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
P: (272)235-5524
F: (570)348-3618
robert.gentilezza@s <robert.gentilezza@scrsd.org>sdedu.org
*This email message may contain confidential information. If the reader of
this message is not the intended recipient, please note that reading,
copying, or distributing this message is prohibited. If you have received
this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email.*
From: Todd Feathers
This is very helpful, thank you, Bert!
Todd
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