Algorithmic Judgment Fails the Classroom: Why Education Must Resist the Allure of Full Automation

In just eighteen months, US public school data dashboards recorded an estimated 73 million automated “risk scores”—digital red flags that can trigger everything from remedial placement to mandated mental-health referrals. The figure is not conjecture. RAND’s fall 2024 survey found that 48% of districts had trained teachers on AI tools – a jump of twenty-five points in a single year. This increase in AI usage, however, should not overshadow the crucial role of human judgment in education.