Educators urge parents to be vigilant and ask if their child’s school uses the SMART assessment tool, citing serious concerns over data protection and the accuracy of the AI-generated results.
School leaders warn that the Government’s new assessment initiative, sourced from Australia, relies on AI and has inaccurately assessed student work.
In an information sheet for school leaders, the Ministry of Education explicitly states that “all SMART data will be stored securely in Aotearoa, with backups for disaster resilience and recovery stored in Australia.” However, a separate sheet for parents claims the information is “stored in New Zealand,” while the teacher information sheet fails to mention data storage at all.
“The Ministry of Education’s own messaging is contradictory, which does not help build trust,” says Stephanie Madden, Chair of the NZEI Te Riu Roa Principals’ Council. “Telling parents one thing while informing school leaders that data is actually heading offshore is misleading. We need certainty about where our children’s information sits and who access to it.”
“School leaders and teachers are raising concerns about the results generated by the SMART tool,” says Mrs Madden. “Some teachers have reported that the AI failed to evaluate the quality of writing, instead giving identical marks to completely different student scripts based merely on word count.”
“We want to protect children from being unfairly labelled and rated by an AI tool that was rushed into classrooms. Schools have always reported student progress directly to parents, and we urge parents to talk to their child’s teacher for a complete picture of their learning rather than rely on a single tool,” Mrs Madden adds.
Schools have a range of assessment tools to choose from.
“Teachers must be trusted as professionals to choose the best tool for their students,” says Mrs Madden.