B-CS school officials discuss AI grading STAAR tests [Video]

Using artificial intelligence to grade written answers for students’ written answers on this year’s statewide standardized exams is a little scary to College Station Superintendent Tim Harkrider.

According to the Texas Tribune, the Texas Education Agency will use an “automated scoring engine” to grade written answers for the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) for reading, writing, science and social studies exams.

“The writing component, in my opinion as an administrator, has always been very subjective to a point where there is human error in grading and it’s very subjective,” Harkrider said.

By using this technology, TEA is expected to save between $15-$20 million per year, according to the Texas Tribune. The state agency has paid third-party human scorers to grade written answers in the past. A TEA official told the Texas Tribune it hired around 6,000 human scorers in 2023, but will need fewer than 2,000 this …