近距离内射合集

After parent backlash over the safety of a state-mandated artificial intelligence reading software, the New Mexico Public Education Department has offered school districts a way to opt out of using the program in favor of other methods.

Meanwhile, the company鈥檚 CEO said in an interview with the Journal Monday that the program is not collecting data for nefarious purposes and cautioned against restricting its full use.

As of Monday, five districts and one charter school across New Mexico 鈥� Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Farmington, Roswell, Clayton and Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe 鈥� have declined to use Amira, the AI-powered reading testing program used for regular assessments and tutoring for elementary school students, opting instead for alternative testing methods, according to PED spokesperson Janelle Taylor Garc铆a, who added that the exemptions are for this school year only.

District leaders in Santa Fe and Los Alamos cited privacy concerns, particularly about the voice recordings that the program collects to assess students鈥� reading ability. Some parents worried that Amira was gathering students鈥� voices and using them to 鈥渢rain鈥� the AI software for commercial purposes.

Amira works by listening to students read aloud and catching their mistakes, though some teachers told the Journal they took issue with the program鈥檚 accuracy, especially with students with speech disabilities or foreign accents. 

In a to PED Secretary Mariana Padilla published last week in the Los Alamos Daily Post, Los Alamos Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Guy said the district would be pausing the use of Amira until parents鈥� privacy concerns were assuaged.

鈥淎 child鈥檚 voice is effectively biometric data, and parents are rightly uneasy about it being collected and retained by a third-party system as a condition of a state-mandated assessment,鈥� Guy wrote.

Last week, days before the start of the school year for many districts throughout the state, the PED released an updated set of guidelines on Amira. The , signed by Padilla, gives districts and charter schools the option to use the software without the voice recording feature, to use a paper test or to use their own program for assessment instead.

All voice recordings on the program are deleted monthly, according to the report, though districts can request to have data deleted daily, weekly or at the end of the school year.

Though the memo provides districts with the means to opt out, Padilla said in the report that it was important for all public and charter schools in the state to use the same reading test to measure student progress.

鈥淲hile districts may use additional local assessments to inform instruction, a common statewide assessment provides a shared measure that supports consistency, transparency, accountability and equitable decision making,鈥� she wrote.

鈥榃e never sell student data鈥�

Amira鈥檚 founder and CEO Mark Angel told the Journal the company uses student data 鈥減urely for educational purposes.鈥�

鈥淲e never sell student data,鈥� Angel said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 perfectly legitimate for people to be concerned about what data we collect and how we use it. But we really take more than offense 鈥� we consider it actionable 鈥� for us to be accused of being in the business of profiting or commercializing that data.鈥�

Amira collects what Angel calls a minimal amount of personal data from students, such as first names, teacher names and grade levels. 

鈥淭he things we need to collect,鈥� he said.

All information is stored in the company鈥檚 U.S. data center and is sent, in the form of reports, to state governments for progress monitoring, he said. Data is deleted in accordance with whatever policy the contract has established 鈥� some require deletion after 30 or 60 days, or at the end of the school year, Angel added.

To make Amira a better listener, the program needs to listen to student voices, Angel said, so the software does use recordings to 鈥渢rain鈥� the program, but only to improve its own performance.

鈥淚f they don鈥檛 want us to use the data we have to improve the software to help kids become better readers, they have a perfect right to say, 鈥楧on鈥檛 do that.鈥欌�� Our response is that our mission is to help these kids learn to read,鈥� Angel said. 鈥淚f policymakers want to put us in handcuffs and create a situation where we can鈥檛 help more of these kids, they have a perfect right to do that. I would say that鈥檚 an enormously horrible price to pay.鈥�

How it started

As of the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, all public and charter schools are required to administer the Amira reading assessment for students in kindergarten through second grade at the beginning, middle and end of each school year, and to use Amira for tutoring for a minimum of 30 minutes a week.

The PED began using Amira after the software provider schools had been using for testing, Istation, was by the San Francisco-based company Amira Learning.

New Mexico spends $2.7 million on Amira yearly for software use, professional development, data analysis and other additional tutoring and support programs, Angel said. 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.

APS response

The state鈥檚 largest district, Albuquerque Public Schools, is still using Amira in keeping with state requirements, despite mounting concerns from parents.

At a board meeting last week, several dozen people said they were troubled by the district鈥檚 use of the program.

Sally DeRadke, the mother of a second grade student at APS, told the Journal she found out her son was using the program when he came home from school talking about someone named Amira. DeRadke said she thought it was a new teacher.

鈥淭he truth is that they need our students to use their AI, and they need our teachers to correct those errors so that their model can improve and they can make more money selling it to other districts,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e using our children as free labor to train their tool for corporate profit.鈥�

An online to get APS to reconsider using the program had reached 725 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

APS spokesperson Martin Salazar said the district is encouraging parents with questions about Amira to meet with their students鈥� principal, who will address concerns together with teachers. 

Families can follow a 鈥渞efusal process supported by the principal and their test coordinator,鈥� Salazar said.

Despite the backlash, officials at APS contend that the district has had success using the program. 

Last school year, APS first and second graders logged their highest reading scores since at least 2021 using Amira 鈥� 34% of first graders and 38.6% of second graders were proficient in reading at the end of May.

The PED picks up the tab for most of the cost of the statewide assessment on Amira, so APS pays around $38,000 for the testing component, Salazar said, though district officials could not say Monday how much APS spends on the tutoring portion of Amira.

APS Board President Ronalda Tome-Warito said at last week鈥檚 meeting she鈥檇 heard the concerns, but would not make a hasty decision on whether or not to use the program.

鈥淥ur responsibility as a board is neither to dismiss concerns nor to make decisions out of fear or public pressure,鈥� Tome-Warito said. 鈥淭his is not a question of choosing between innovation and safety. We must have both.鈥�

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