Managing The Ethics Of Algorithms

In 2009, her school district introduced an algorithmic method to measure teacher performance, with the plan of terminating the bottom 2% of the district's staff. By 2011, Wysocki had gotten the boot. Because the computer had identified her a bad teacher, despite the raves of parents and administrators. The district's algorithm was based on year-over-year improvements on standardized test scores, and teachers knew this. What became largely apparent was that some teachers, anxious not to be in that bottom 2%, had cheated to inflate scores on their students' behalf.