@bhaggart.bsky.social:
This is the technology that Mark Carney thinks is good enough to replace thousands of federal civil servants.
@peterlouwe.bsky.social:
And his idiot AI minister who’ll remind us a lot of RFK Jr in coming months.
He reminded me of RFJ Jr already years ago, before fraudster liar Carney plunked Solomon’s sleazy corrupt ass in such a privileged harmful position.
@andrewqmr.bsky.social:
Oh my God. A contractor for the state of #Massachusetts used AI to score MCAS standardized tests. It resulted in incorrect scores on about 1,400 tests, which had to be rescored.
@jongerhardson.bsky.social:
AI scoring was used for the same amount of essays in 2025 as in 2024, DESE said.
It must be so humiliating to be a teenager today knowing that whatever effort you put into writing these essays will be completely unknown to any living person.
@garpu.bsky.social:
I hate AI so very much
@gianttigerkitty.bsky.social:
Sweet Jesus. Stop. Stop using AI for critical jobs.
‘No rhyme or reason’: AI grading issue affects hundreds of MCAS essays, The state’s testing contractor found roughly 1,400 essays did not receive the correct scores, according to a spokesperson with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by Ryan Kath, September 11, 2025, 10Boston
The use of artificial intelligence to grade MCAS exams resulted in some errors across Massachusetts, so humans had to step in to make sure that student essays received an accurate score. The NBC10 Investigators started asking questions after getting a tip from a teacher.
The use of artificial intelligence to score statewide standardized tests resulted in errors that affected hundreds of exams, the NBC10 Investigators have learned.
The issue with the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) surfaced over the summer, when preliminary results for the exams were distributed to districts.
The state’s testing contractor, Cognia, found roughly 1,400 essays did not receive the correct scores, according to a spokesperson with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
DESE told NBC10 Boston all the essays were rescored, affected districts received notification, and all their data was corrected in August.
So how did humans detect the problem?
We found one example in Lowell. Turns out an alert teacher at Reilly Elementary School was reading through her third-grade students’ essays over the summer. When the instructor looked up the scores some of the students received, something did not add up.
The teacher notified the school principal, who then flagged the issue with district leaders.
“We were on alert that there could be a learning curve with AI,” said Wendy Crocker-Roberge, an assistant superintendent in the Lowell school district.
AI essay scoring works by using human-scored exemplars of what essays at each score point look like, according to DESE.
The AI tool uses that information to score the essays. In addition, humans give 10% of the AI-scored essays a second read and compare their scores with the AI score to make sure there aren’t discrepancies. AI scoring was used for the same amount of essays in 2025 as in 2024, DESE said.
Crocker-Roberge said she decided to read about 1,000 essays in Lowell, but it was tough to pinpoint the exact reason some students did not receive proper credit.
However, it was clear the AI technology was deducting points without justification. For instance, Crocker-Roberge said she noticed that some essays lost a point when they did not use quotation marks when referencing a passage from the reading excerpt.
“We could not understand why an individual score was scored a zero when it should have gotten six out of seven points,” Crocker-Roberge said. “There just wasn’t any rhyme or reason to that.”
District leaders notified DESE about the problem, which resulted in approximately 1,400 essays being rescored. The state agency says the scoring problem was the result of a “temporary technical issue in the process.”Ya, sure. I bet when the problem is fixed, the AI monster will make more boo boos. AI is going to cost billions of dollars in repairs by humans, and how much harm done to kids, immigrants, non whites, non fake christian male?
According to DESE, 145 districts were notified that had at least one student essay that was not scored correctly.
“As one way of checking that MCAS scores are accurate, DESE releases preliminary MCAS results to districts and gives them time to report any issues during a discrepancy period each year,” a DESE spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Mary Tamer, the executive director of MassPotential, an organization that advocates for educational improvement, said there are a lot of positives to using AI and returning scores back to school districts faster so appropriate action can be taken. For instance, test results can help identify a child in need of intervention or highlight a lesson plan for a teacher that did not seem to resonate with students.
“I think there’s a lot of benefits that outweigh the risks,” said Tamer. “But again, no system is perfect and that’s true for AI. The work always has to be doublechecked.“
DESE pointed out the affected exams represent a small percentage of the roughly 750,000 MCAS essays statewide.So what? The harm done to kids is already done. AI is shit. It’s cruel, it’s sexist, it’s racist, it’s genocidal, it’s stolen and very very stupid.
However, in districts like Lowell, there are certain schools tracked by DESE to ensure progress is being made and performance standards are met.
That’s why Crocker-Roberge said every score counts.
With MCAS results expected to be released to parents in the coming weeks, the assistant superintendent is encouraging other districts to do a deep dive on their student essays to make sure they don’t notice any scoring discrepancies.
“I think we have to always proceed with caution when we’re introducing new tools and techniques,” Crocker-Roberge said. “Artificial intelligence is just a really new learning curve for everyone, so proceed with caution.”
Refer also to:
2023: Why I hate AI
2024: AI and the death of dignity. Another reason why I hate AI.