A small but growing number of high schools are using artificial intelligence to solve a very real problem at commencement ceremonies: For graduates, the pomp and circumstance can be quickly drained from the long-awaited moment when a reader mispronounces their name as they receive their diploma.
At schools that use the new platforms—which are more commonly used by colleges and universities—each graduate scans a personalized QR code before they step on stage. That prompts a computer program to play an AI recording of their name that they approved in advance.
Leaders at large urban and suburban high schools that have adopted the technology say it can help avoid the fumbles that happen when staff members are assigned the high-pressure job of reading hundreds of names live on stage. But many have faced intense pushback from parents and community members, who argue that the shift makes a moment steeped in history and tradition feel deeply impersonal.
“Names carry deep cultural and personal significance,” June Prakash, a parent and president of the Arlington, Va., teachers’ union, told the local school board April 30 after one of the district’s high schools announced plans to use the AI technology. “When spoken by someone who knows the student or has taken the time to learn their name, it reflects respect and belonging. Outsourcing that responsibility can unintentionally send the message that efficiency matters more than identity.”
Arlington’s Washington-Liberty High School quickly backtracked on plans to use an AI feature designed by the graduation logistics company Tassel to call the names of 700 graduates at its June ceremony. But other schools and districts are staying the course. Plano, Texas, schools plan to use a platform called NameCheck at their ceremonies, even after some students circulated a petition opposing the plan.
Pronouncing students’ names properly is key to belonging at school
The debates come as the country’s public school enrollment grows more diverse, a trend that brings with it names from a wider variety of linguistic and cultural origins. While students of color represented a combined 34% of public high school graduates in 2003-04, they made up 54% of graduates in 2023-24, the most recent federal data show.
National organizations including teachers’ unions and immigrant student groups have stressed the importance of teachers pronouncing students’ names properly in the classroom. Constant errors or the use of easier-to-say nicknames can chip away at a students’ sense of belonging at school, a factor researchers have linked to safety, engagement, and academic success, they argue.
The National Association of Bilingual Education and the Santa Clara County Office of Education, a regional service agency in California, partnered in 2016 to create “My Name, My Identity,” a campaign that includes resources and toolkits for teachers. In the time since, more than 12,000 educators and 1,800 districts have signed a pledge committing to take the time to say students’ names correctly and stress the importance of doing so to their students and colleagues. Additional educators signed on as recently as this month.
“School is a community, which prepares our students to succeed in the global world,” the campaign’s materials say. “To be an effective member of this global world, we can model respect for each other in the school community by learning about each other’s stories, our unique names, and their proper pronunciations.”
But the job of calling a name at graduation is different than speaking with a student in the classroom. At large schools, readers may call hundreds of names, including those of students they didn’t teach in class. And the list may include full names or middle names students only use on formal occasions. Speakers can even flub familiar names after a marathon session at the microphone, said Chase Rigby, the CEO of Tassel, which runs one of the AI platforms.
For graduates, the AI platforms’ use can raise tough questions: Is it meaningful to have their name said correctly if a human didn’t take the time to learn it? Is the assurance that family members—who often travel long distances to attend ceremonies—will hear their names said correctly worth the tradeoff of a novel use of technology?
The local controversies also come as school districts navigate emerging concerns about the overuse of technology in operations and instruction.
AI technology allows graduates’ to confirm name pronunciation in advance
Rigby said he’s sensitive to the pushback, which first bubbled up at the higher education level when Tassel introduced the AI tool in fall 2024. He believes a lot of discomfort families and communities feel about the product stems from misunderstanding or a lack of familiarity with how it works. For starters, the AI voices don’t sound robotic, like the iPhone’s Siri or other virtual assistants, Rigby said.
“This is not some crazy Alexa cattle call,” he said, referencing the voice used by Amazon devices. “It’s very intimate.”
Tassel, which handles a range of graduation logistics, previously offered recordings by voice actors, who recorded thousands of names each year for college ceremonies. The AI tool is trained to replicate those actors’ voices, even varying tone to make readings sound warmer and more human. It’s trained on a phonetics database and linguistic models from eastern and western countries, and it’s refined over time as new name pronunciations are approved and added.
In the lead-up to graduation, students listen to an AI recording of their name, taking up to three times to prompt the platform to adjust its pronunciation. If they still aren’t satisfied, a voice actor makes a live recording of their name with input they provide.
“I don’t know a more human application of AI than this,” Rigby said.
He shared a video of a graduation ceremony at Northeastern University London to demonstrate the technology’s use.
But those arguments don’t seem to assuage some communities’ concerns. For students, hearing an educator read their name as they have their big moment can be one last confirmation that they were known and valued in school, those critics argue.
“Who asked for this?” Prakash, the Arlington parent and union leader, asked her school board at the April 30 meeting. “At first glance, this may seem like a small logistical decision, but it represents something much larger about who we are as a school system and what we value.”
Leaders at Washington-Liberty High School weighed use of the AI program, but they reversed course in response to feedback, district spokesperson Christina Arpante said.
For 20 years, the same staff member read every graduate’s name at the school’s ceremonies. Last year, several staff members took on the role “and the shared responsibility resulted in some pronunciation challenges,” Arpante said.
While school leaders don’t know how they will handle the name-reading task in the future, that longtime staff member has agreed to return to the familiar role this year, working with students in advance to say their names properly, she said.
