What’s Being Called the Craziest College Admission Season Ever? A Natural Experiment for the American Education System
What’s being called the craziest college admission season ever is also proving to be a natural experiment for the American education system. Test-optional and test-blind admissions in recent years could mean a radical expansion of access to selective colleges. Yet, despite well-intentioned efforts to disrupt systemic inequities in who gets admitted, universities are reverting back to standardized assessments in the hopes of being able to better predict which students will be successful in their environment and graduate on time.
Artificial Intelligence to Personalize, Not Standardize Assessments
Technology has long shaped schools’ approach to assessment. In the early 2000s, I gained first-hand experience in how large districts make decisions about edtech adoption and the rollout of AI-enabled personalized learning. At that time, adoption of adaptive learning and diagnostic solutions such as DreamBox, i-Ready, IXL, and even NWEA Map was exploding across the nation. These edtech tools were viewed as a breakthrough technology that offered classrooms real-time reporting and analytics to track and adjust teaching as students play. Since then, online learning continues to shatter the boundaries of traditional, monolithic approaches to K-12 teaching and learning. Digital Promise’s work on digital equity and safety and Getting Smart’s synthesis of the evolution of AI-enabled innovations shaping teaching and learning are a testament to just how much progress we have made.
Expanding Our Efforts in Three Areas
This raises a special challenge to system leaders: How can we unleash AI to enable measurement of the things we know matter but we’re not yet good at measuring? How can we leverage AI to personalize, not standardize, assessments so every student is supported in equitable ways for success inside and outside the classroom?
To achieve this, we need to expand our efforts in at least three areas:
1. Develop Learner-Centered Assessments Aligned with Learner-Centered Systems
The skills that make us uniquely human are the skills that a learner-centered framework champions. They are also the skills that will be very difficult, if not impossible, for technology to replicate reliably. Instead of focusing our energy on teaching kids what robots can do, we need to focus on teaching them what only humans can do.
For example, to become better writers, readers, and critical thinkers, Quill.org offers low-income students an AI-powered literacy tutor that provides students real-time coaching and feedback on literacy activities that pair nonfiction reading with informational writing. In addition, Quill’s new Reading for Evidence tool offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their comprehension of nonfiction texts by writing arguments based on feedback from Quill’s AI tool on how to strengthen the logic, evidence, and syntax in their responses. As a result, students are equitably receiving the feedback they need, particularly those coming from under-resourced communities or multi-lingual learners who may benefit from additional scaffolding.
2. Shift from Pen and Paper Assessments to Integrated, Invisible Assessments
Assessment methods that are woven into the fabric of learning and invisible to students offer another opportunity to leverage AI to transform how we measure student progress. During COVID, particularly in the first year when school doors remained shut, stealth assessments became the lifeline for most families. Stealth assessments have also been found to reduce test anxiety and increase student engagement. This type of assessment offers unbounded opportunities to measure for higher-order thinking skills. Video game-based assessments, for example, are particularly attractive as a means to cultivate skills that are unique to the human brain and can help increase engagement.
3. Disaggregate Data to Shift the Focus from the Average Student to Every Student
From an equity lens, norm-referenced tests – essentially all standardized tests – are particularly problematic. First, rarely are they appropriate for students with limited English proficiency, or any speakers of dialects other than General American English. The format of these tests can also introduce bias because they are reflective of traditional Western values. Those with access to resources may be able to work around these challenges through the use of tutors or test prep services.
Leveraging AI to employ analytic techniques that allow for disaggregated data can shift the focus from the dominant group to ensuring every kid – including those that are Black, Hispanic, low-income, immigrants, English learners, and students with special needs – is viewed from an asset-based lens by understanding their expertise and strengths relative to their own reference group.
A Call to Invest in Assessment R&D to Eliminate Inequities
For students not served well by the limited lens offered by standardized tests, particularly for predicting success outside the classroom, amplifying the power of AI-driven assessments can be a game-changer.
These new approaches hold immense disruptive potential: at first blush, this growing list of AI-powered opportunities in assessments may seem "lower quality" compared to the tried and tested standardized assessments dominating the current education market. But they can get a foothold in the vast pockets of nonconsumption of assessment, where the only alternative is not to measure these outcomes at all.
However, to ensure that AI-powered assessments don’t scale in ways that reinforce the status quo, weaken human relationships, or worsen inequality, R&D dollars should help these disruptive approaches take root, and ensure that measures are created with fairness and transparency, and that they align with the programs that exist to support students.
Conclusion
As schools continue to develop roadmaps and policies to drive the best use of technology and technology-integration tools, this is an emerging opportunity for educators, policymakers, and technologists to work together – and alongside students and their families – to harness the opportunities offered by AI to re-imagine what personalized assessments can look like at a time when students need them the most.
FAQs
Q: What is the purpose of AI in education?
A: The purpose of AI in education is to leverage technology to personalize, not standardize, assessments so every student is supported in equitable ways for success inside and outside the classroom.
Q: How can AI be used to measure student progress?
A: AI can be used to measure student progress by developing learner-centered assessments aligned with learner-centered systems, shifting from pen and paper assessments to integrated, invisible assessments, and disaggregating data to shift the focus from the average student to every student.
Q: What are the potential benefits of AI-powered assessments?
A: The potential benefits of AI-powered assessments include increased student engagement, reduced test anxiety, and more accurate measurement of student skills and knowledge.
