AI-driven tools may signal the integration of technology into learning in profound ways; however, the long trajectory of edtech has not yet changed the fundamental organizing structure between teacher and student. Teachers—with the vast majority of schools still organized as one teacher for every 15 to 35 students—mediate students’ classroom experiences in myriad ways. Although opportunities for students to work independently using instructional learning systems clearly exist in most contexts, the frequency of their use, for what purposes and for which students vary widely.
As a case in point, Project Topeka featured an automated essay scoring tool that provided grades 6–8 students with individualized line-level feedback on argumentative essays responding to six different prompts. Each prompt offered aligned information sources, and instructional materials and other teacher supports accompanied the tool. The Project Topeka rubric described students’ argumentative writing along four dimensions: Claim and Focus, Support and Evidence, Organization, and Language and Style, at four performance levels (Emerging, Developing, Proficient, Advanced).
Building on our research on teachers’ approaches to using AI in the classroom and how teachers’ scoring of argumentative papers differed from that of the automated essay-scoring tool, this companion piece illustrates the expertise teachers drew on to reveal their understanding of the writing rubric, the ways they used it and the extent to which the rubric captured or missed what they see and expect from their students’ argumentative writing. Teachers’ perspectives on the rubric underscore the questions we must continue to ask as edtech products embed and evolve logics that reduce—rather than increase—transparency in how the technology facilitates student learning.
During three implementation waves (winter 2020, fall 2020 and school year 2021-22), almost all teachers using Project Topeka agreed that the dimensions the AI tool scored were appropriate and agreed with the scores their students’ writing received. However, a majority also told us that students were confused about how to respond to the feedback. The teachers needed to help students interpret and apply the feedback and provide more holistic feedback. (See Exhibit 1.)
Exhibit 1: Teachers’ Perceptions of Project Topeka Automated Essay Scoring
Discussions of the rubric (as part of a calibration process for teachers to score student work samples) revealed the critical ways in which teachers used their expertise to emphasize key elements of the rubric and frame feedback to students. Below are highlights of teachers’ perspectives on three of the four rubric dimensions.
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