Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 6
Teachers Rethink Essay Grading After 2025 AI-Written Work Surge
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 6

Teachers Rethink Essay Grading After 2025 AI-Written Work Surge

2 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 6

Summary

  • Teachers and college professors are shifting from trying to catch chatbot-written essays to redesigning how they assess student work.
  • Last year's wave of suspiciously AI-generated submissions pushed educators to conclude that policing essays was consuming time without reliably measuring student learning.
  • Rachael Zeleny, who directs the University of Baltimore writing program, urged instructors to use the free Brisk app to avoid spending grading time on work produced by a bot.
  • The change signals a broader move in classrooms toward accepting AI's presence and adapting assignments, rather than treating detection as the main response.

Insights

If polished essays no longer prove learning, how will schools measure true intelligence in an AI-dominated world?
If educators track keystrokes and revision histories to verify authorship, when does academic integrity cross into digital surveillance?