Developers say they understand why teachers would be skeptical. But, they insist, computers already drive cars and detect cancer, so they can certainly handle grading students' essays.

The computer also is programmed to scan for the elements present in a well-supported essay, said Richard Swartz, an executive with Educational Testing Service, which developed e-rater.

One company is developing an essay grading computer program that can take the load off professors and standardized test graders ...

It compared the computer-written essays with a pencil-and-paper test given to fourth graders two years earlier, in 2010. High-performing students did substantially better on the computer than with ...

A writing professor at MIT has developed a computer program that writes a college essay in one second, after you input a few key words and it actually scores pretty well on an online grading ...

Developers say they understand why teachers would be skeptical. But, they insist, computers already drive cars and detect cancer, so they can certainly handle grading students' essays.

Students work on computers in Henderson, Nev. Several states including Utah and Ohio use automated grading on student essays written as part of standardized tests. Listen More States Opting To ...

It would take a computer about a nano-second to mark "D" as the correct answer. That's easy. But now, machines are also grading students' essays. Computers are scoring long form answers on ...