I just found out my old college's admissions algorithm was flagged for bias

I was talking to a friend who still works there, and she told me back in 2019 they had to scrap a whole new ranking system they'd built. It was supposed to predict student success, but after a year they found it was unfairly lowering scores for applicants from certain high schools, basically penalizing kids from less wealthy areas. They only caught it because a professor in the sociology department demanded to see the data. Now they have a totally different review process that includes a human committee looking at the algorithm's suggestions. Has anyone else seen a case where catching bias meant throwing out a whole system and starting over?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryanc5720d ago

That sociology professor deserves a medal for pushing to see the data.

shane_hayes20d ago

Honestly, that 2019 system probably just needed a few fixes, not a full restart. Tbh scrapping it seems like a huge waste of time and money.

quinn_burns20d ago

a few fixes" lol yeah like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. classic move, let's spend millions to rebuild from scratch instead.