AI initiative boosts Brisbane school writing scores

A recent initiative in Brisbane Catholic Education schools has demonstrated notable improvements in National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) writing scores through the use of an artificial intelligence (AI) writing programme.

Eight schools in the Brisbane Diocese participated in a pilot AI writing programme, showing NAPLAN growth rates eight times higher than their provincial counterparts.

The schools involved, including St Mary MacKillop Primary, Sacred Heart Parish School, and St Columban's College, employed Writer's Toolbox to enhance student writing outcomes, as well as their thinking skills and confidence.

NAPLAN has historically used standardised scores to measure student achievement and progress, yet improvement in writing has lagged behind other areas such as numeracy and reading since its inception in 2008.

In Queensland, the combined 2023 NAPLAN writing score was 486 points, marginally increasing to 488 in 2024. In stark contrast, the eight schools utilising the AI programme achieved an increase from 490 to 555 points in the same period.

Writer's Toolbox, a USD $20 million research and development programme, is designed to cultivate critical and inventive thinking in students. It offers planning tools, learning modules, and writing structures aimed at bolstering skills like analysis, inference, evaluation, problem-solving, and creativity. Students are trained to be self-directed learners, equipped to follow their curiosity and engage in creative exploration.

Mike Connolly, Principal of St Columban's College expressed considerable enthusiasm for the programme's impact. "I think this journey started for St. Columban's about four years ago when I first got to the school and I looked at the writing ability of our students at St. Columban's," he said. "Whilst they're great students and lovely kids, their writing ability was below the national mean."

"My goal was to get their results up at least to the national mean or higher because I knew we had some very talented students that could actually push the levels of their writing and get more success."

Connolly highlighted the programme's capacity for differentiation, stating, "The thing that sold me about the Writer's Toolbox programme was the differentiation it offered students. Sometimes when you do differentiation with students it's not a great thing and they feel bad about themselves. But with Toolbox's AI you are able to change the programme to cater for the students and give them instant feedback. They love the feedback. They love seeing their overall writing result and saying, 'Can I make this better?' And it's great to see the look on the students' faces when they actually succeed in their writing and they go, 'I really can write.'"

Significant improvements were noted across all year levels, with Year 3 experiencing the highest increase of 7.22% from 2023 to 2024, even while the state average fell by 0.57%. Years 5, 7, and 9 outperformed by a factor ranging from four to six times the state average.

These results have sparked interest from other regions considering similar trials.