A newly introduced tech is coming to Texas, with the Texas Education Agency introducing an AI-powered essay grader that will automatically check the student's work for the state-mandated standardized tests. These tests are known to measure Texan students' proficiency in reading, writing, social studies, and science fields, as part of their curriculum.
The tests will not change and will remain human-made, but they will be checked by Texas' latest AI development which claims to be different from ChatGPT.
Texas Brings AI-Powered Student Essays Grader
The Texas Tribune reported the arrival of an AI-powered technology to schools, dubbed as the "auto scoring engine" or ASE by the Texas Education Agency to grade student essay tests. This means that there would no longer be the need for human graders to check their answers after the standardized tests, as mandated by the Lone Star state.
According to the San Antonio Report, the AI will initially process all the tests from students, and only 25 percent of these responses will be handed to human graders for further review.
Through this, Texas is looking at as much as $15 to 20 million in savings with this new AI tech, reducing the need to hire human graders through third-party agencies.
Texas' AI is Different from ChatGPT
The Texas Education Agency website shows that the scores given by the AI and human graders are comparable for most kids' answers, with the organization naming Cambium and Pearson as contractors.
"This kind of technology is different from AI in that AI is a computer using progressive learning algorithms to adapt, allowing the data to do the programming and essentially teaching itself," said TEA.
Moreover, the Texas Education Agency shot off comparisons of their AI grader with ChatGPT, claiming that it is a closed database with student response data that are only accessible by TEA, Cambium, and Pearson.
AI Developments for Schools
In the early days of AI and its introduction to the world, there were fears that AI could turn students lazy and rely on technology to create schoolwork and the like. However, there were advocates like Sal Khan of Khan Academy who advocated for integrating the learning experience with AI, offering his platform's lessons and materials with GPT-4 from OpenAI.
There are also significant advancements towards applying AI-based curriculum for US public education, equipping students with the knowledge to learn the ins and outs of the technology. In California's Orange County, its Department of Education is now pursuing teaching AI to schools, as its two administrators are AI specialists, introducing the tech and deploying it to learning institutions.
Additionally, some companies now develop AI-powered gun detectors to help improve security in schools, with Iterate.AI from Silicon Valley sharing it to campuses.
In Texas, AI graders will now check student essays from standardized tests automatically, looking to save millions with this new initiative and have less reliance on the workforce.
Related Article: ChatGPT Is Writing Better School Essays Than Students, Study Finds
