> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://digitalteachernotes.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Fourth Graders Are Now Being Assessed by AI. Some Parents Want It to Stop. - URL: https://digitalteachernotes.com/fourth-graders-are-now-being-assessed-by-ai-some-parents-want-it-to-stop/ - Published: 2026-10-20T03:10:05.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-20T03:10:05.000Z - Description: Fourth graders are already using AI to explain their reasoning and receive instant scores and feedback. Some parents are now asking whether schools are moving too quickly. - Author: Digital Teacher - Tags: News, AI A student finishes a classroom assignment. Then comes another step. They explain their thinking to an AI system. The AI listens. It looks at what they wrote or drew. Then it decides whether the answer is correct, scores the quality of the explanation, and gives feedback. That is already happening in elementary classrooms. And now some parents are pushing back. In school districts around Albany, New York, students are using an AI platform called **Snorkl** to explain what they learned after classroom activities. The system analyzes their response and gives instant feedback. Grades are still assigned by teachers. But the AI is already playing a role in judging student understanding. [Read the Times Union report](https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/fourth-graders-taking-ai-powered-tests-parents-22479944.php?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) ## What does the AI actually do? Snorkl is designed around a simple idea: Students should not only give an answer. They should explain how they reached it. They can: - speak - write - draw - annotate - record their reasoning The AI then analyzes the response. According to Snorkl, it evaluates two things: **Correctness** Was the final answer or conclusion right? and **Explanation quality** How complete, clear and well-reasoned was the explanation? The explanation score runs from **0 to 4**. A student can even get the final answer wrong but still receive a relatively strong explanation score if their reasoning shows useful understanding. [Read Snorkl’s scoring guide](https://help.snorkl.app/en/articles/12675870-understanding-snorkl-ai-scores?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) ## This is more than a chatbot Snorkl does not work like a normal AI conversation. Students submit a response. Then the system gives feedback. The company says this design is intentional. The goal is to keep students doing the thinking first, then use AI to help them reflect and revise. Snorkl describes the process as: **Think → get feedback → revise → reflect** That is actually a fairly strong educational model in theory. Students explain what they know. The AI points out gaps. They try again. The teacher can see the attempts and review the feedback. [Read how Snorkl describes its learning model](https://help.snorkl.app/en/articles/12615070-how-snorkl-supports-student-thinking?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) ## So why are parents objecting? The concern is not only about whether the AI can give useful feedback. Some parents are asking a more basic question: **Why is AI becoming part of elementary assessment so quickly?** The Times Union reports that parents in Albany and nearby districts are organizing through local chapters of **Schools Beyond Screens**, a group advocating for limits on classroom technology. Their concerns include: - increased screen time - lack of clear evidence that the technology improves learning - limited parent involvement before rollout - students spending more time on Chromebooks - AI becoming part of activities that used to involve direct teacher interaction That is where the story becomes more interesting. The debate is not really: **Is Snorkl good or bad?** It is: **How much of a child’s learning process should be mediated by AI?** ## The schools see a different benefit Schools using the technology argue that AI can do something teachers often do not have time to do at scale. Listen to every student explain their reasoning. A teacher with 25 students may not be able to hear a detailed explanation from each student after every activity. An AI system can. That gives teachers a dashboard showing: - who understood the concept - who is confused - who has the right answer but weak reasoning - who has strong reasoning but made a small mistake That is potentially useful. The teacher can then focus attention where it is needed most. ## The teacher still sets the criteria There is also an important detail that gets lost easily. Snorkl does not simply invent its own grading standard. Teachers can define: - expected concepts - vocabulary - answer criteria - grade level - subject - tone of feedback The AI then evaluates student work against those expectations. The company explicitly tells teachers to review and edit the generated criteria before assigning an activity. [Read Snorkl’s teacher setup guide](https://help.snorkl.app/en/articles/12675035-customizing-the-snorkl-feedback?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) So the teacher is still designing the task. The AI is handling part of the immediate evaluation. ## But that still changes the classroom Even if teachers remain in control, something important has changed. Traditionally, a student explains an answer to: - a teacher - a classmate - the class Now the student may explain it to software. That changes the social context of learning. There are possible benefits. A shy student may feel more comfortable explaining to a device. A student can try multiple times without embarrassment. Feedback arrives immediately. But there are trade-offs too. The student is not practicing how to explain an idea to another person. The teacher may see the result through a dashboard rather than hearing the explanation directly. And children may begin to experience AI evaluation as a normal part of school from a very young age. ## The speed of adoption is part of the problem This is probably why the parent reaction matters. Snorkl says it is already used in more than **10,000 schools worldwide**. The technology is not a small pilot anymore. AI assessment is moving into ordinary classroom workflows quickly. Schools often adopt new tools because they solve a real problem. Immediate feedback is valuable. Teacher time is limited. Understanding student reasoning is difficult at scale. But once a system becomes normal, it can be surprisingly hard to reverse. That makes the evaluation stage important. ## What evidence should schools ask for? Before making AI assessment routine, schools could ask: **Does the feedback actually improve learning?** **How often is the AI wrong?** **How often do teachers override the feedback?** **Do students revise more effectively?** **Does the tool help teachers understand students better?** **What happens to student voice recordings and written responses?** **Does it reduce meaningful teacher-student interaction?** Those are answerable questions. And they are more useful than arguing about whether AI belongs in school in general. ## The bigger shift For the first wave of classroom AI, the question was: **Can students use AI to get answers?** Now a different model is appearing. The student gives the answer. **The AI judges it.** That may turn out to be a much bigger change. AI is moving from helping students produce work to becoming part of the feedback and assessment layer around that work. That does not automatically make it bad. But it does make the stakes higher. Because once AI starts evaluating how a child thinks, schools need to be very sure about what they are asking it to do. ### Sources [Times Union: Elementary students are being tested by AI after class assignments. Parents are organizing to stop it](https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/fourth-graders-taking-ai-powered-tests-parents-22479944.php?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) [Snorkl: What Is Snorkl?](https://help.snorkl.app/en/articles/12615061-what-is-snorkl?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) [Snorkl: Understanding AI Scores](https://help.snorkl.app/en/articles/12675870-understanding-snorkl-ai-scores?ref=digitalteachernotes.com) [City School District of Albany: AI use and educational technology in our schools](https://www.albanyschools.org/academics/news/1831236/educational-technology?ref=digitalteachernotes.com)