The Texas Education Agency is using artificial intelligence to grade parts of the STAAR test.
The TEA said the move is meant to save millions of taxpayer dollars that would have been spent on hiring current and retired teachers for grading student’s responses.
The move is something some districts are skeptical of. but they’re waiting to see the results.
“My main concern is the ability to be able to adequately and fairly access our students, I’m not in favor of anything that puts some kind of some kind of disadvantage to, not just our students, but students across the state,” City View ISD Superintendent, Dr. Jesse Thomas said.
Districts like Holliday ISD are keeping a close eye on the new grading method, and said their biggest concern is whether or not student’s will be given fair assessments on their answers when a computer is doing the grading instead of a person.
“We’re just going to have to take a good look at the results when we get them back and make sure we feel like our kids are getting adequate grades, or responses, or feedback to the answers they submit,” Holliday ISD Superintendent, Dr. Cody Carroll said.
Dr. Thomas has spoken with teachers at City View about the change, and they are confident they will know if something is off based on how well they know their student’s abilities.
“My main concern is we’re doing right by the students, so as long as, you know, I think if it’s something where AI increases the fidelity of the assessment results, then I support that. I just don’t want, again, our kids or our teachers to be the collateral damage in something that has created some unfair environment when assessing kids,” Dr. Thomas said.
Dr. Carroll told me this change is like many others that have happened over the years, it’s new technology being utilized. He compared it to when the internet was brought into schools.
“It’s a whole lot different than anything we’ve experienced in the last five years, so it’s a completely new system, a completely new way of looking at grading the exam. You know, I don’t know enough about AI to be supportive or scared to death of it,” Dr. Carroll said.