Essay Grading Software For Teachers

asjk writes "Software to help teachers with grading has been around for sometime. This is true even with respect to grading essays. A new tool, called Criteria, will look at grammar, usage, and even style and organization. It works by being trained by at least 450 essays scored by two professionals. The difference this time? Here is a snip from the article: '"There's a lot of skepticism," Dr. Spatola said. "The people opposed see it dehumanizing the student's papers, putting them through some sort of mechanical, computerized system like the multiple choice tests. That's really not the case, because we're not talking about eliminating the human element. We're making the process more efficient."'"

Comments

It's a touchy subject

[mao che minh]

A lot of people that have the intelligence to debate subjects ranging from the intricacies of memory management in operating systems to the effects that the the Michelson-Morley experiment had on the realm of physics (as many here on Slashdot can) probably cherish good grammar and composition. I know I do. All I have to do is flip the channel to MTV and listen to today's youth (many of whom are older than I am) speak, or read an 11th grader's essay, and I begin to feel that we are slipping greatly in the subject of English.

I sometimes wonder how so many people, who are products of our education system, can be so painfully inadequate when it comes to the simple act of composing a sentence.