The debate on automated essay grading

In this installment of Trends & Controversies, we look at a controversy: the use of computers for automated and semiautomated grading of exams. I am ver pleased to have a well-rounded discussion of the topic, because in addition to three technical contributions, we have a commentary from Robert Calfee, the Dean of the School of Education at UC Riverside and an expert in the field of educational testing. First, Karen Kukich, the director of the Natural language Processing group at Educational Testing Service, provides us with an insider's view of the history of the field of automated essay grading and describes how ETS is currently using computer programs to supplement human judges in the grading process. Then, Tom Landauer, Darrell Laham, and Peter Foltz describe the use of latent Semantic Analysis in a commercial essay-scoring system called IEA. They also address important ethical questions. Lynette Hirschman, Eric Breck, John Burger, and Lisa Ferro report on MITRE's current efforts towards automated grading of short-answer questions and discus the ramifications for the design of general question-answering systems. Finally, Robert Calfee places these developments in the framework of current educational theory and practice. After three years editing the Trends & Controversies feature, it is time for me to pass the column on to others. Thank you for reading, and I hope our trendy and controversial contributors' essays have enhanced your understanding of the shape of the field.