7 in 10 teachers oppose CSAT essay questions over grading disputes, AI concerns

A parent demands full marks for a written English answer, citing an email from a professor at an American university. In another case, a private academy challenged an English test score, and the dispute later led to a lawsuit over partial credit. These incidents, described in a casebook recently released by the National Secondary School Teachers’ Union, show the challenges facing discussions about introducing written-response and essay questions into Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), potentially aided by artificial intelligence (AI) grading. The casebook accompanied a survey of 2,427 middle and high school teachers conducted from Sept. 7-30. Middle and high school teachers nationwide say persistent grading complaints have pushed them to set questions with fixed answers. They warn that expanding essay-based assessments could worsen disputes and increase their workload. Several teachers described a tension between encouraging diverse, well-reasoned answers and creating grading criteria precise enough to withstand complaints. One English teacher reported that a dispute inv