MCAS AI-Grading Error Tanks Student Essay Scores Across Hundreds Of Districts: Report

MASSACHUSETTS — Students in nearly 200 districts had Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System essays incorrectly scored because of an artificial intelligence grading glitch, according to an NBC Boston report.

The station reported that about 1,400 tests were discovered to have been incorrectly graded with some essays receiving a "0" grade that should have been graded as high as a 6 on a scale of 1-7.

• Could MA Bring Back Statewide Tests As High School Graduation Requirements?

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told NBC10 Boston all the essays were rescored, affected districts received notification, and all their data was corrected in August. Statewide MCAS results were released late last month, showing COVID-era learning deficits are still a "challenge" across grade levels across the state.

DESE told the station that the scoring problem was the result of a "temporary technical issue in the process" and that the errors "represent a small percentage of the roughly 750,000 MCAS essays statewide."

AI has been used to help grade MCAS tests at similar levels for the past two years. DESE told the station that about 10 percent of the essays are then read and regraded by humans to help ensure consistency in grading.

The scoring glitches come at a time when Massachusetts residents overwhelmingly voted to reject passing proficiency thresholds in the MCAS tests as a graduation requirement for high school seniors. Nearly 60 percent of voters in last year's ballot initiative blocked the standard that had been in place across the state for two decades.

It also comes as a state K-12 Graduation Council is developing new graduation requirements that may bring back some type of standardized "end-of-course assessments" in core subjects to determine whether a high school student is eligible for a high school diploma.

The Council's draft recommendations include a provision for "end-of-course assessments" that would be "designed, administered and scored by the state, promoting a uniform standard across Massachusetts."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)