TLDR: Recent national test scores in the U.S. have reached historic lows, with a significant decline in student preparedness for college and proficiency in math. While many attribute this downturn to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Forbes article raises the question of whether the widespread use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which became available before the latest tests, might also be playing an unacknowledged role in students outsourcing their learning.
National test scores across the United States have reached unprecedented lows, signaling a concerning decline in educational attainment among middle and high school students. According to recent assessments conducted between January and March 2024, only 35% of high school seniors are deemed prepared for college-level work, a drop from 37% in 2019. Even more stark is the statistic that a mere 22% of American seniors demonstrate proficiency in mathematics, falling significantly short of basic competency standards.
Historically, educational performance has shown a slow but steady erosion, yet the latest data represents a sharp acceleration of this trend. While the COVID-19 pandemic is widely cited as the primary cause for this decline, a Forbes article by Derek Newton highlights a ‘baffling omission’ in the ongoing discussion: the potential influence of generative artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT, a prominent generative AI tool, was released in November 2022, well before the recent national tests were administered. The article posits that students have since ‘uniformly’ adopted such tools to ‘outsource their school work’ and ‘offload the work of learning.’ This raises a critical question about the causal link between AI use and the observed drop in test scores.
Interestingly, when the author surveyed experts on this matter, most expressed confidence that generative AI was not a significant factor in the declining scores. Many of these experts even advocated for schools to embrace AI, viewing it as a positive force for education. However, not all opinions align with this perspective.
Joe Vercellino, the 2021 Detroit Teacher of The Year and author of ‘Toiling With Creativity,’ offers a contrasting view. Vercellino asserts, ‘Artificial intelligence will create a stark contrast between those that intentionally develop skills to understand and those that pawn off the need to build competence to simply solve.’ He further warns that ‘The dependence on AI to solve problems that young people need to understand will constantly undermine test scores and performance in real-world critical thinking scenarios.’
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The article concludes by suggesting that even if generative AI is not the sole or primary cause, its potential link to educational outcomes warrants serious consideration. Acknowledging this possibility could significantly inform how educational leaders, from classrooms to school boards, develop and implement policies regarding AI use in learning environments.
