SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Christopher Belt advanced a measure that would ban the use of AI tools in teacher evaluations.

“A teacher may get a bad performance review, just to find out that it was AI that gave them the bad review with no way to challenge the outcome,” said Belt (D-Swansea). “I think we can all agree that there’s nuance in the classroom, and we shouldn’t dehumanize it.”

Senate Bill 2909 would prevent school administrators from using AI to write teacher evaluations. A teacher evaluation is a formal process used to measure an educator's effectiveness, instructional skills and classroom performance. The use of AI while writing these evaluations brings up many transparency and privacy concerns for teachers.

The measure recognizes that AI might become an integral part of the teacher evaluation process one day, but the technology is not there yet. The measure would not stop evaluators from using AI for administrative tasks. If the evaluator chooses to use AI assisted tools, they must name and specify the purpose of the tool used in the evaluation and share that information with the teacher being evaluated.

Senate Bill 2909 passed the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday and awaits further consideration from the full Senate.