Amity Regional High School is using artificial intelligence to grade students. I know because it graded me and got it wrong.

A few months ago, I received a one out of three on two questions for an AP Psychology assignment evaluated by an AI tool. The feedback told me I had failed to provide specific evidence. I had provided it.

The problem, I eventually figured out, was that the question asked for “at least one piece of specific and relevant evidence,” and I had cited multiple studies. The AI interpreted “at least one” as “only one” and penalized me for doing more than the minimum. The score went into PowerSchool. It was affecting my grade.

I wrote a three-paragraph email appeal explaining, with citations to the question’s exact wording, why the AI’s interpretation was wrong. My teacher reviewed it. He told me my explanation made sense, awarded the point, and noted that “as both AI scoring tools and humans can interpret questions and answers differently, and are fallible,” he was glad we had the chance to discuss it.

He was right to be glad. But what should concern parents of any school is what that process actually required. A student had to write a formal academic argument, citing statistical methodology and the semantics of “at least,” to recover a point on a homework assignment because a piece of software misread a sentence.

My teacher also praised the tool’s dispute feature for enabling “deep dialogue between student and teacher.” That dialogue was real and valuable. It was also proof that the AI produces errors serious enough to require a dispute button built right into the tool. The question worth asking is how many students, facing the same error, simply accepted the score and moved on.

So I started asking bigger questions. What had Amity [in Woodbridge] bought? What did it cost? How many tools were there?

The district’s answer, repeated in the budget and in Amity’s own student government newsletter as recently as February 24, was simple: $11,000 on one product, Magic School AI, which, the newsletter was careful to add, does not grade students.

I filed a Freedom of Information request.

The records told a different story. Amity Regional had purchased five AI products: Magic School AI, two ChatGPT Enterprise subscriptions totaling 25 seats, a platform called Snorkl AI, and two licenses for a tool called Diffit. Total spending added up to $19,216.51, over $8,000 more than the figure the district had been publicly citing for months. The invoices were signed by Amity’s own Director of Finance and Superintendent. It’s all been documented at keepamityhuman.org.

I am a senior in high school. I found this because I asked, in writing, using a process Connecticut law makes available to anyone. This is something any student, parent, or community member can do.

More than 150 Amity students have signed a petition against AI grading. They have real reasons. Research from the 2024 American Educational Research Association conference found that AI and human graders reach exact agreement only about 40 percent of the time, with consistent bias against high-quality writing. My teacher himself noted that even human AP scorers require a mediator when they disagree. A system producing that level of variation deserves serious scrutiny and transparent public accounting before its scores start shaping student averages.

The regional school board votes to approve next year’s budget on March 9. I have been sending them daily emails for over two weeks, and one member has responded. I am still hopeful that before that vote, the board will reckon seriously with what 150 students are saying, and with what one student had to do to recover a point he had already earned.

Amity asks its students to show their work. We have. There is still time for the board to do the same.

Liam Roselle of Bethany is a student at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge.