近距离内射合集

Amid mounting pressure to dump the software, leaders at Albuquerque Public Schools said Wednesday the district will continue to use the contentious artificial intelligence reading program Amira, but will scale back voice recordings and increase data deletion amid student privacy concerns.

Amira works by listening to students read aloud, noting incorrect pronunciations and scoring their performance. The program has been required for use by the state Public Education Department since the beginning of the 2025-26 school year and is used both for regular assessments and weekly tutoring.

In a to parents, APS Deputy Superintendent Randy Mahlerwein said Amira鈥檚 leadership provided certifying that all voice data from before the current school year had been deleted. Data from Amira鈥檚 testing feature will be deleted every 48 hours so teachers have a chance to listen to the recordings, and Amira鈥檚 tutoring component will continue to score and analyze student voices but will not record them.

The move comes after parents showed up en masse at school board meetings across the state, asking district leaders to reconsider using the program, worried about where their children鈥檚 data goes and who sees it.

As the school year starts across New Mexico, several districts have already opted out of the PED requirement in favor of non-AI programs. Since the beginning of the month, 15 of the state鈥檚 89 districts and one charter school have refused the program, some temporarily until further guidance is available, according to PED spokesperson Janelle Taylor Garc铆a.

APS 鈥� the state鈥檚 largest district 鈥� has maintained that it will continue to use the program, even in the face of mounting parental discontent, citing the progress its students have made using Amira.

Parents who don鈥檛 want their children to use Amira can opt for a paper-and-pencil test, Mahlerwein said.

The program was approved for use after the non-AI software provider schools had been using for testing, Istation, was by the San Francisco-based company Amira Learning in 2024.

New Mexico spends $2.7 million on Amira yearly for software use, professional development, data analysis and other additional tutoring and support programs, Amira leadership told the Journal. The cost of the statewide assessment alone is $1.4 million.

Amira is required for assessments in two states 鈥� New Mexico and Idaho 鈥� and is authorized for state use in Oklahoma, Georgia, California, Texas, Michigan and Massachusetts.

The concerns about Amira, it seems, are spreading to state government. On Monday, a group of more than 30 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle signed a letter addressed to PED Secretary Mariana Padilla, requesting that the agency ask for parental consent before using Amira and provide the public information about its functionality.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e talking about the biometric data of children 5 to 8 years old,鈥� said Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, who led the group of signatories. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 valuable stuff, and we know it, but we have to treat it as such.鈥�

Serrato said she worries about the consequences of not teaching children AI literacy when they interact with Amira, who appears on students鈥� screens as a friendly purple-haired cartoon character in glasses.

鈥淥ur job right now is to be teaching every level of New Mexican, whether they鈥檙e children all the way up to our elders, just what AI is and what it isn鈥檛,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y concern is that it really is humanizing this tool.鈥�

Serrato said building stronger guidance for AI is a top priority at the next legislative session in January.

鈥淎s public servants, our job is to operate as transparently about things that the public has questions on as possible,鈥� she said.

Taylor Garc铆a said in a statement the PED had received the letter and that the agency 鈥渨elcomes the opportunity to discuss these matters with the Legislature and to partner in creating clear safeguards, strong accountability measures, and transparent communication with families.鈥�

鈥淭he department will continue evaluating emerging technologies to ensure they are used responsibly, securely, and in the best interest of New Mexico students,鈥� she said.

Lawmakers also wrote of anxieties surrounding 鈥渕odel drift,鈥� the decline in an AI product鈥檚 functioning or accuracy after it is launched to the public as it adapts to user behavior.

鈥淭he unfortunate reality is that once children鈥檚 voices and other real-world data are used to train the model and influence its future output, the system鈥檚 behavior and performance can change,鈥� the letter reads.

Amira CEO Mark Angel maintains that this is not an issue with the program, which does use student voices to 鈥渢rain鈥� its performance, since the assessment does not change from the beginning of a school year to the end.

鈥淭his is a complete misunderstanding,鈥� Angel said. 鈥淚f anyone on the Senate team or staff had talked to us, we would have explained that any concern about model drift does not impact Amira鈥檚 ability to accurately assess students. And I think if people think about it, we鈥檙e approved by more than 30 state agencies. If there was any truth to what they鈥檙e asserting, no state agency would be willing to rely on our data.鈥�

Amira does collect student data, but only under direction from the PED, so the state can produce its reading performance reports, Angel said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to collect this data; it鈥檚 a nuisance,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f the Legislature or PED tells us to stop collecting the data, we will stop instantaneously.鈥�

Recordings are stored so that teachers can listen back to them to hear student progress, Angel said, so a 48-hour deletion window means teachers have less time to listen to the recordings. 

鈥淧eople are confused about this. They think that we are keeping this audio because it鈥檚 serving some interior purpose,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 actually serving the exterior purpose of helping teachers to benefit from the assessment process.鈥�

Angel insists the company does not sell or transmit data to any other agency or company.

鈥淲e have contractual obligations, civil penalties from the Federal Trade Commission, and legal responsibilities to a wide range of government agencies that make it almost an absurdity to imagine that we would do something both as immoral or as suicidal as sell or provide this data,鈥� he said.

Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.