Houston ISD automated teacher evaluation system slammed as opaque

A US school district using an opaque algorithmic assessment tool said it would fire 85 percent of its teachers, prompting heated debate and a lawsuit.

The seventh largest school district in the United States, The Houston Independent School District (HSID) used the SAS Institute's Educational Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) to track teachers’ performance by comparing their students’ test results to the statewide average for students in that grade or course between 2012 and 2017.

Shortly after implementing EVAAS, HISD it would fire 85 percent of teachers rated as ineffective by the system, despite not having access to detailed information about how the system worked on the basis that SAS maintained it constituted a trade secret.

Though the lawsuit had allowed an expert to investigate some parts of the system, it was assessed to be impenetrable and the HSID agreed to stop using the system to assess teacher performance as long as it remained impossible to understand.