# Incentives Of EdTech: A Systematic Review Of EduNLP Research

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.13691 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.13691/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 47 of its 224 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 May 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 47)

- [A Framework for Understanding Sources of Harm throughout the Machine Learning Life Cycle](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.10002/) (2019)
- [Exploring LLM Prompting Strategies for Joint Essay Scoring and Feedback Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15845/) (2024)
- [Unleashing Large Language Models' Proficiency in Zero-shot Essay Scoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04941/) (2024)
- [On the application of Large Language Models for language teaching and assessment technology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.08393/) (2023)
- [Prompting open-source and commercial language models for grammatical error correction of English learner text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07702/) (2024)
- [Rationale Behind Essay Scores: Enhancing S-LLM's Multi-Trait Essay Scoring with Rationale Generated by LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14202/) (2024)
- [Towards Automated Document Revision: Grammatical Error Correction, Fluency Edits, and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11484/) (2022)
- [Training Turn-by-Turn Verifiers for Dialogue Tutoring Agents: The Curious Case of LLMs as Your Coding Tutors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13311/) (2025)
- [Findings of the BEA 2025 Shared Task on Pedagogical Ability Assessment of AI-powered Tutors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.10579/) (2025)
- [Improving Socratic Question Generation using Data Augmentation and Preference Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00199/) (2024)
- [Can GPT-4 do L2 analytic assessment?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18557/) (2024)
- [Do LLMs Give Psychometrically Plausible Responses in Educational Assessments?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09796/) (2025)
- [Improving Automated Distractor Generation for Math Multiple-choice Questions with Overgenerate-and-rank](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05144/) (2024)
- [TRATES: Trait-Specific Rubric-Assisted Cross-Prompt Essay Scoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14577/) (2025)
- [Temporalizing Confidence: Evaluation of Chain-of-Thought Reasoning with Signal Temporal Logic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08243/) (2025)
- [Beyond Flesch-Kincaid: Prompt-based Metrics Improve Difficulty Classification of Educational Texts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.09482/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Text Editing for Grammatical Error Correction: Arabic as a Case Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00985/) (2025)
- [gec-metrics: A Unified Library for Grammatical Error Correction Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19388/) (2025)
- [LCES: Zero-shot Automated Essay Scoring via Pairwise Comparisons Using Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.08498/) (2025)
- [Intent Matters: Enhancing AI Tutoring with Fine-Grained Pedagogical Intent Annotation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07626/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Evaluation Metrics for Grammatical Error Correction: Why Use a Different Evaluation Process than Human?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09416/) (2025)
- [EssayJudge: A Multi-Granular Benchmark for Assessing Automated Essay Scoring Capabilities of Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11916/) (2025)
- [LookAlike: Consistent Distractor Generation in Math MCQs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01903/) (2025)
- [Alignment Drift in CEFR-prompted LLMs for Interactive Spanish Tutoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.08351/) (2025)
- [LLMs cannot spot math errors, even when allowed to peek into the solution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01395/) (2025)
- [Alirector: Alignment-Enhanced Chinese Grammatical Error Corrector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04601/) (2024)
- [Using Adaptive Empathetic Responses for Teaching English](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13764/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Arabic Automated Essay Scoring with Synthetic Data and Error Injection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17739/) (2025)
- [Adapting LLMs for Minimal-edit Grammatical Error Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13148/) (2025)
- [LEVOS: Leveraging Vocabulary Overlap with Sanskrit to Generate Technical Lexicons in Indian Languages](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.06331/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

While the Natural Language Processing community has dedicated significant resources in developing educational technologies (EdTech) that support this shift, it remains unclear whose interests are being best served among the stakeholders of education. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review of 204 papers published in venues of the Association for Computational Linguistics' Special Interest Group on Building Educational Applications in 2024 and 2025, and validate these against EdTech papers from the wider ACL Anthology. By examining stakeholder inclusion and the prioritisation of research tasks, our findings reveal a critical tension: a push and pull between private-sector incentives and the foundational needs of educational infrastructure. Our analysis reveals that teachers are systematically under-represented as beneficiaries of research (33.3%) despite being the most affected, that real-world deployment remains rare (9.8%), and that ethical engagement tends toward acknowledgement rather than action. Drawing on exemplary papers in our corpus, we offer concrete recommendations for more responsible EduNLP research practices.