Unless it is replaced by something that does basically the same thing, I doubt we’ll see it go anywhere. The biggest thing Scantron had up on other test formats is the speed at which grading is done. Takes a ton of time off of the shoulder of teachers that they can better spend on other things like lesson planning

I am personally all for this…and also getting rid of multiple choice entirely while we’re at it. Full disclosure, I hate multiple choice tests, and I don’t think they are particularly good at measuring ability. There’s too much gamesmanship. Personally, I always preferred essays and short answers. To me, these always seemed to allow me to actually convey what I know and demonstrate my thinking. In the little bit of teaching I’ve done, the students who are actually good also tend to do better on written essays, but there’s not as much differentiation among students with multiple choice tests (especially stock tests…ugh). But doing all the hand grading sucks.

With the advent of generative AI, I could see a specialized system that could effectively grade essays and short answers. The technology isn’t quite there yet, but one day…