"English-learning students’ scores on a state test designed to measure their mastery of the language fell sharply and have stayed low since 2018 — a drop that bilingual educators say might have less to do with students’ skills and more with sweeping design changes and the automated computer scoring system that were introduced that year.

English learners who used to speak to a teacher at their school as part of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System now sit in front of a computer and respond to prompts through a microphone. The Texas Education Agency uses software programmed to recognize and evaluate students’ speech.

Students’ scores dropped after the new test was introduced, a Texas Tribune analysis shows. In the previous four years, about half of all students in grades 4-12 who took the test got the highest score on the test’s speaking portion, which was required to be considered fully fluent in English. Since 2018, only about 10% of test takers have gotten the top score in speaking each year."

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[–] teft@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I found during my language learning journey that talking to people was infinitely better than duolingo or any other automated learning process. Robots get it wrong when you try to say something and it's a little non-standard. Humans will usually understand you even if you're not 100% perfect. Texas is doing those kids a disservice.

[–] snooggums@midwest.social 42 points 2 months ago

Education software sold to schools is dogshit for the most part, and that is when using it as a native English speaker. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to try and use something made for non-English speakers.

I thought this was a joke before having to help my kiddo when they were doing remote schoolwork during covid.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 2 months ago

That's the point. They want to keep non-native speakers in poverty and working entry-level labor jobs.

My partner is ESL (English second language). She sometimes repeats a word that I say to practice the pronunciation. Yesterday, it was "binoculars," and I explained the root of "bi," two, and "ocular," as in the eyes. That's not happening with a computer program that can't discern a human's degree of understanding.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Texas doing kids a disservice is what they do best.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

I think it was just the testing being done by computer, as opposed to a teacher evaluation test. In other words, the teachers can't claim a student is good, even if they aren't.

The teaching was the same, but now the testing became impartial.