This spring, students across New Jersey are taking the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments – Adaptive (NJSLA-AD), a state assessment that now uses artificial intelligence to measure student progress, grade essays and short-answer responses. According to EducationWeek Magazine, the system was implemented to provide quicker scoring and more consistent results across the state. The AI grading program was trained using student responses from practice assessments administered in October and November. While AI scores most responses, any answers flagged as “unusual” or “borderline” are reviewed by human scorers.
At West Essex, the use of AI grading has made some students uneasy about how their work will be evaluated. Many students feel that their ideas may not be fully understood by a computer. Others are worried that if their answers do not follow a typical format, they could receive a lower score even if their response is correct. There is also concern about how much these scores matter, especially for juniors who will use these scores for college applications.
Steve Beatty, president of the New Jersey Education Association, has publicly expressed concern about the new system. He stated that he would hate to see students receive inaccurate scores due to computer errors, and emphasized that if standardized testing continues, trained educators should remain responsible for grading student work.
Concerns about AI grading are also supported by findings from other states. According to nj.com, in Massachusetts, approximately 1,400 test scores were reported incorrectly due to AI grading errors, with some students receiving zeros instead of high scores. Some studies suggest that AI systems can produce errors depending on the task, requiring human oversight to verify results.
AI was chosen because of its believed efficiency and consistency. If teachers have access to their students’ grades quickly, they can refine their curriculum to fit their students’ needs better. However, if AI’s work is being checked over by a human, it loses the value of being time-saving.
