HENDERSON (KTNV) — At the tutoring center Excel Academy, there are physical standardized test prep materials, but some of that additional help is moving to the artificial intelligence space.
“Green Valley High School is the first school we used AI tools for test prep during class time,” said owner Brandon Kim.
That’s 640 students working with tutors and artificial intelligence to help improve their ACT scores.
Irene Kang, Excel Academy’s project manager, walked us through the process, showing how AI components are used in combination with in-person tutors.
One element is an AI-generated question bank catered to each student to help them focus on the areas in which they didn’t perform well on during a pre-assessment practice test.
“That would be the Mt. Everest of asks to impose that on a teacher to come up with individualized question banks,” said Green Valley High School Principal Kent Roberts.
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,” he 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.
“We'll see if that translates into improved performance,” he said. “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.”
Kim says that’s really the point of it all.
“The solution is not more study times, but the smarter use of time,” he said.
The big test comes at the end of February, when the students will take the ACT.
Once they have the results, Excel Academy will hold a debrief session with Principal Roberts to go over what went well and what could be improved.
This story is part of a series covering The 7th Annual National News Literacy Week presented by Scripps, the News Literacy Project, USA Today and USA Today Network.
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