The Role of AI in Enhancing Educational Practices
Key points:
Overreliance on AI is a widely discussed topic for teachers, administrators, and families alike. The last thing we want is for technology to stifle the creativity, expertise, and interpersonal connection that educators bring to the classroom or to impair our students’ ability to think critically.
At the same time, if used thoughtfully and in a targeted manner, AI can strengthen the work of educators – instead of replacing them. By providing real-time insights into student performance relative to learning standards and grade level expectations, AI enables teachers to identify learning gaps to tailor classroom experiences to individual student needs.
Perhaps most importantly, AI is increasingly capable of eliminating the cumbersome lower-level administrative tasks associated with compiling data and summarizing assessments, freeing educators to focus on meaningful collaboration and developing deeper conversations to better inform instruction.
A Valuable Tool for Improved Teamwork
Westmont Community Unit School District, which serves more than 1,300 K-12 students in DuPage County, Illinois, has relied for years on a robust progress monitoring platform to measure student understanding through formative and summative assessments.
The data became a cornerstone of our weekly grade-level team meetings, aligning all teachers with a common understanding of student performance and allowing them to identify areas of strength and growth. By quickly assessing mastery of standards and identifying where reteaching is needed, educators were able to work together on targeted interventions, such as small group review sessions and instructional strategies to ensure students meet key learning standards going forward.
As powerful as the data was, compiling it could be a time-consuming process. Team members had to manually export the information into a spreadsheet, sort the data by teacher, and insert formulas to analyze the results question by question. At a time when educators are demanding more and more of their time and energy, expanding their to-do list has been a major challenge.
Lately, however, new AI technology has become critical to reducing the administrative burden on our busy teachers and freeing them up to have deeper conversations focused on more impactful work.
Through our advanced assessment platform, team members can easily enter prompts into the AI chat tool and ask the system to separate the data by teacher, question, and student. The system instantly creates graphs and charts that show trends, highlight at-risk groups, and answer questions about student performance. Instead of spending 30 minutes exporting and organizing information, teachers can gather everything they need in seconds.
AI’s time-saving capabilities have enabled Westmont teachers to complete more than 130,000 assessments last year, providing them with clear, easy-to-understand data. This easily accessible information has become a catalyst for more results-oriented discussions. The system can also recommend targeted interventions and resources when needed, helping teachers quickly move from data analysis to an action plan.
For example, if we compare student performance on math standards such as multiplication, we can see which fourth graders perform better in a particular skill area. This in turn leads to a deeper analysis: What teaching strategies did the teacher use that contributed to this success? How did they intervene when students demonstrated misconceptions? These findings helped strengthen instruction and promote consistency of instruction, ultimately leading to improved student performance across classrooms.
Taking AI Adoption to the Next Step
Once teachers became more comfortable analyzing and applying the data, they began to involve students in the process. AI capabilities allow teachers and students to review assessments side by side and find out why questions were answered incorrectly, whether errors were due to a careless error, misunderstood direction, or a gap in understanding that required additional instruction. This reflection helped students develop greater self-awareness and take a more active role in their learning.
We also ensure that all AI technology complies with SOPPA, the Illinois Student Online Personal Protection Act. Over the summer, administrators and teachers will have focused discussions to determine the district’s current stance and determine our future approach.
As the great AI debate continues to gain steam, it’s important to see technology for what it should be: a time saver for teachers so they can focus on what matters most – strengthening the connections that enable meaningful learning for their students. AI should never replace the collaboration of educators or the expertise of the people in the room, but rather shine a light on the insights that spark deeper conversations about how to continually improve the educational experience for every student.
Dr. Carla Braun, Community Unit School District 201
Dr. Carla Braun is the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Community Unit School District 201 in Westmont, Illinois.
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