As part of News Literacy Week at Scripps News Group, we continue to dig into the effects of AI, where it's being used and how.
I visited Excel Academy, a tutoring center in Las Vegas, where you'll still find physical test prep books. But owner Brandon Kim explains the help is moving from the page to the digital stage.
"Green Valley High School, that's the first school we used AI tool SAT/ACT prep for mandatory during class time," Kim said.
That's 640 students working with tutors and artificial intelligence to help improve their ACT scores.
Irene Kang, the project manager at Excel Academy, walked me through one of the AI components.
"So if we just click through these, yeah, so then, it will give you the explanation exactly how the student performed and then using this data, it will also contribute to the future questions that would pop up in this feature," Kang said.
It's somewhat of a question bank catered to each individual student, focused on the areas in which they didn't perform well.
That's a bonus for Green Valley's Principal Kent Roberts.
"That would be the Mt. Everest of asks to impose that on a teacher to come up with individualized question banks," Roberts said.
He's hoping to fine-tune the process even more for his students. But with the bootcamps led by live instructors, he's already seen a change.
"Those students who may not typically perform well on this type of assessment really seemed to show significant improvement," Roberts said.
For everyone else, he says they increased their score by an average of 2 points. On a 36-point scale, that's a pretty significant improvement.
Then add in the AI question bank.
"We'll see if that translates into improved performance," Roberts said. "You never know until the moment of truth."
"I won't say they're looking forward to it, because they're high school kids," Roberts said.
And it's a test, right? Who wants to take a test?
"But I think they feel much more comfortable going into the test quite honestly now, because they feel like they have a few more tools in their toolbox," Roberts said.
What Kim says is the point of it all.
"The solution is not more study times, but the smarter use of time," Kim said.
The big test comes at the end of February. That's when students will take the ACT. Once they have the results, Excel Academy will meet back with the principal and they'll have a debrief. What worked well. What could be advanced? All to improve the AI landscape when it comes to education.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
