The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is a standard school exam. Most Massachusetts students sit it. This year, about 1,400 essays got bizarrely wrong scores and had to be reassessed. Y…

This year, about 1,400 essays got bizarrely wrong scores and had to be reassessed. You guessed it — a contractor scored them with AI!

The contractor, Cognia, got $36.5 million this year to mark essays, and they did that by just throwing them into the chatbot…

How did the contractor get caught out on this year’s disaster? One third-grade teacher went and checked her students’ essays and saw the bizarre scores. She alerted her principal, who sent it up to the district. In the end, 1,400 essays got remarked.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
    41·
    25 days ago

    Eh? Third graders have a decently large vocabulary and can express complex thoughts and ideas. I doubt we’re talking 800±word essays, but 200 words? Maybe two paragraphs? They can totally put short essays together.

    Source: I have an 8-year-old who is admittedly pretty verbose, but her classmates can do this stuff too

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
      1·
      25 days ago

      If your 8-year-old can write coherent, well-structured paragraphs then I’d say she’s precocious. I’ve worked with high school students who can’t do that.