Categories: News

NZQA: AI-marking now a reality

NZQA is implementing AI-marking for all Year 10 written assessments from this year onwards, following successful trials.

<h2><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">During scrutiny week at Parliament&comma; NZQA chief executive&comma; Dr Grant Klinkum&comma; confirmed that Year 10 students who sat their writing assessment this year are having their papers marked by an AI tool&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><b>Read the latest print edition of <em>School News<&sol;em> online HERE&period;<&sol;b><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Dr Klinkum was questioned by the Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday 18 June&comma; last week&comma; as part of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;scrutiny week”&period; When asked about NZQA’s use of AI to mark exams he said&colon;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;During May there were around 185&comma;000 literacy and numeracy assessments completed&period; Around 60&comma;000 of those relate to writing&period; We are doing a first AI run-through with those writing responses&comma; and 40 percent of those are being human check-marked at the boundary&period;”<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">He clarified that students who come close to passing or failing the writing assessment criteria will have their results checked by a human marker&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Dr Klinkum reminded the committee this system was based on a pilot version of the AI marking tool trialled last year with 36&comma;000 written responses&period; There were smaller pilots of the AI marking tool in the two preceeding years&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The agreement rate by using AI marking is very&comma; very similar to the human-to-human agreement rate&period; The combination of AI marking plus 40 percent of check-marking gives us an extremely high agreement rate&comma; far higher than human-to-human&period;”<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">This is the first year that AI marking is no longer in its trial-stages but is being used as a live-tool&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Year 10 students who sat their literacy and numeracy assessments in May will receive their results in early Term 3&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">In April&comma; Dr Klinkum said the use of the automated marking tool would allow NZQA to return results faster&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This enables us to return those assessments to schools and students earlier so that they&&num;8217&semi;ve got an opportunity to prepare for the next assessment a couple of months later if they have failed the writing assessment first time round&period;”<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Naomii Seah

Naomii Seah is a writer and journalist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has been covering education in New Zealand since 2022.

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