On May 4, 2017, a U.S. federal judge advanced teachers’ claims that the Houston Independent School District’s use of algorithmic teacher evaluations violated their due process rights to their jobs. The Houston ISD contracted with SAS Institute in 2011 to use their Educational Value-Added Assessment System to evaluate teacher performance. SAS does not allow teachers to review the calculations made by their proprietary algorithms, which, in the opinion of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, violates the teachers’ right to independently review the cause of their termination. Houston ISD ended its contract with SAS in 2016.

On May 4, 2017, a U.S. federal judge advanced teachers’ claims that the Houston Independent School District’s algorithmic teacher evaluations violated their due process rights to their jobs by not allowing them to review the grounds of their termination.

Moderate

Harm to civil liberties

SAS Institute's Educational Value-Added Assessment System, which is designed to evaluate teacher performance based on student test performance.

SAS Institute

Education

Cognition

machine learning

data analytics, decision support

Houston, TX

Houston Independent School District, SAS Institute, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Houston Federation of Teachers Local 2415, Andy Dewey

Houston Independent School District, SAS Institute

2011-01-01

2016-01-01

Harm caused

Accident

No

US Constitution Fourteenth Amendment

test grades