Computers Grading Students’ Essays – Some Push-Back

Several people wrote letters to The New York Times in response to the article about computer grading of students’ essays (summarized in Marshall Memo 480). Here are excerpts from two of the letters:

• “Far from being grateful for ‘a break’ from grading papers, I am dismayed by the prospect of substituting the teacher-student interactions that are the heart of education with a set of algorithms, no matter how complex. Part of teaching is engaging with students through assessments that help both student and examiner to learn.”  Alison Frank Johnson, Arlington, MA (Harvard professor of history).

• “On Sunday nights I would rather be anywhere but at my desk facing a stack of student essays. Still, I question the arguments offered in support of automated essay scoring. The chief selling point of electronic assessment is that it gives instant feedback… But writing is not a game in which you click away until you hit on the right answer. Writing is thinking, and revision is a slow process, unpredictable and exploratory. A piece of writing, like a cake taken from the oven, needs some time to cool before the revision process can even begin.” Cathy Bernard, New York City (associate professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology).

“That Dastardly Computer Gave My Essay a D!” – Letters to the Editor in The New York Times, April 12, 2013, http://nyti.ms/15gsJFl 

From the Marshall Memo #481