SoapBox + CA to Discuss the Future of Assessment at SXSW EDU

We invite you to join our colleagues, Kristen Huff, Vice President of Assessment and Research at Curriculum Associates, and Amelia Kelly, Chief Technology Officer here at SoapBox Labs, at SXSW EDU 2024 on March 4th at 1 pm CT for a deep dive discussion on the future of K-12 assessments.

The panel “The Future of Assessment is Invisible,” will explore how edtech companies can leverage AI, starting with voice AI, to better understand how students learn and to drive instruction-led assessments that deliver more transparent and real time insights into students’ true progression in learning.

This panel marks the official debut of the new partnership between the two companies post CA’s acquisition of SoapBox in November 2023 with the goal of bringing “state-of-the-art voice technology to more classrooms, helping to ensure every learner is set up for success”.

Joining Kristen and Amelia on the SXSW EDU panel will be Javeria Salman of The Hechinger Report and Nicol Turner Lee of The Brookings Institution. A full session recap will be posted here following the event, so stay tuned!

Referring to the upcoming panel, Kristen Huff said: “The future of instruction-driven assessments that truly deliver – every day in the classroom and as part of large scale testing – is in the hands of education technology companies like ours. Voice-enabling these assessments will make them invisible to students and give better data to teachers. I’m excited to discuss this and other important steps in the evolution of assessments during this panel discussion”. 

“Ensuring that assessments lead to better instructional and educational outcomes is a critical challenge, and one that voice AI can help to address” shared Amelia Kelly. I’m very much looking forward to exploring it further with this panel of leading education experts”

To learn more about Kristen, Amelia, and their fellow panelists, read on for additional background. For more information about the panel, visit https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2024/events/PP139207.

Kristen Huff is the Vice President of Assessment and Research at Curriculum Associates, where she leads a team of assessment designers, psychometricians, and researchers in developing online assessments integrated with personalized learning and teacher-led instruction. Kristen has deep expertise in large-scale K-12 assessments and has co-chaired the National Council on Measurement in Education Task Force on Classroom Assessment since 2016.

Amelia Kelly is the Chief Technology Officer at SoapBox Labs, where she leads the development of child-friendly speech recognition technologies. Drawing on her over 15 years of experience, Amelia’s approach emphasizes innovation, privacy, and adaptability, aiming to positively impact children’s learning experiences with advanced and responsible technology. She was named AI Person of the Year in 2022 and AI Project Leader of the Year in 2023.

Javeria Salman is a Staff Writer and Digital News Producer at The Hechinger Report, where she covers K-12 education issues through the lens of innovation and authors the Future of Learning newsletter. Her work for Hechinger has appeared in Telemundo, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Solutions Journalism Network. Before joining Hechinger in 2019, she worked as a local news reporter in eastern North Carolina.

Nicol Turner Lee is the Director of the Center for Technology Innovation, a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, and the Co-Editor-In-Chief of the TechTank blog and podcast at The Brookings Institution. Her research intersects race, technology, and social justice. Nicol also focuses on mitigating online biases in artificial intelligence and launched the AI Equity Lab to convene experts on the subject. She has a forthcoming book on the U.S. digital divide titled “Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass.”

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Dr. Amelia Kelly is an artificial intelligence engineer, and business executive with over 15 years experience in speech recognition and natural language understanding. She is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a PhD and masters in Linguistics and Speech Technology. Amelia sits on various boards and committees, notably a member of the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) AI Top Team for standards in AI, advising government on AI policy. In 2022 she was named AI Person of the Year, and in 2023 won the AI Project Leader of the Year award at the Business Post CIO awards.

Amelia currently serves as CTO of SoapBox Labs, newly acquired by Curriculum Associates, where she leads the development of child-friendly speech recognition technologies. She focuses on making these technologies effective and ethically sound, ensuring kids can use them safely in learning environments. Her approach emphasizes innovation, privacy, and adaptability, aiming to create a positive impact on children’s learning experiences with technology that’s both advanced and responsible.

Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation and serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of the TechTank blog and podcast at the Brookings Institution, which is a global think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. Her research intersects race, technology, and social justice in the U.S. and abroad. She also focuses on the mitigation of online biases in artificial intelligence and launched a new AI Equity Lab to convene experts. She has a forthcoming book on the U.S. digital divide titled Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass (Brookings Press, August 2024). She is regularly quoted by various news media, testified before Congress and international governance bodies. In 2022, she was recognized for her distinguished career by the American Sociological Association.  She has a B.A. from Colgate University, and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Kristen Huff, M.Ed., Ed.D., currently serves as the Vice President of Assessment and Research at Curriculum Associates, where she leads a team of assessment designers, psychometricians, and researchers in the development of online assessments integrated with personalized learning and teacher-led instruction. Prior to this role, she served as the Senior Fellow for the New York State Education Department as well as serving in leadership roles with several major assessment companies.

Javeria Salman is the digital news producer, and she reports and writes the Future of Learning newsletter. She covers K-12 education issues through the lens of innovation and technology, and helps manage social media. Before joining Hechinger in 2019, she worked as a local news reporter in eastern North Carolina. Her work for Hechinger has appeared in Telemundo, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, The Christian Science Monitor and the Solutions Journalism Network. She attended community college in New Jersey before graduating with a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University.