When we get state student achievement results, we always take the time to evaluate the impact of the strategic initiatives we embraced last year—did our efforts result in the gains we wanted for students?
This summer, our team was particularly curious to see the results from our pilot of an English language arts support that combines the power of high-quality instructional materials and artificial intelligence to provide significantly more individualized feedback to students and real-time insights to teachers.
Even in the past year, the capabilities of AI have advanced by leaps and bounds, as has the hype. Leaders need to be rigorous in their evaluation of tools to see which ones meet their specific needs and align with their priorities. Failure to tune in and lean in could exacerbate existing inequities.
Our pilot of a new AI teaching assistant, Coursemojo, focused on sixth-grade classrooms across Sumner County Schools in Tennessee.
Half the students, totaling 1,043 children, were assigned to classrooms where the teachers had access to the tool, which is aligned to several top-rated ELA curricula to support students’ comprehension of the text they have read. The other half received standard instruction.
TNReady performance among students who received the support increased 8 percentage points year over year, compared to essentially flat performance (-0.3%) for students who were not part of the pilot.
In education, we don’t often see dramatic, single-year gains that more than double the statewide average. We were especially encouraged by the narrowing of historically vexing achievement gaps.
Special education students using the tool narrowed the achievement gap by two-thirds from 16 points to just 5 points. Economically disadvantaged students who used it scored nearly 9 scale points higher.
As we reflect on these results, we have identified three distinctive factors about this and other AI-powered tools that will inform our approach going forward.
First, any solution we implement must foster both teacher effectiveness and student engagement. Many AI tools improve teacher efficiency.
We love saving teachers’ time, but we also want to focus on teacher efficacy and enjoyment. Like many educators and parents, we believe that meaningful innovations must create environments where students are active learners and teachers are facilitators.
Sumner’s teachers have always worked hard to understand how each student is doing, but giving in-the-moment feedback and differentiated support to 27 students in a class is not humanly possible.
Strategically-designed technology allows us to break out of that limitation and give individualized feedback consistently to all students as they need it, not days later when their paper is graded or months later when we get benchmark data.
The AI supports we implemented for the pilot created a safe space where students who are reluctant to ask questions in front of the class can grapple with the text, refine their thinking, learn vocabulary, and strengthen their comprehension. In the mid-year survey, 86% of students said they were more likely to participate in class after working with the AI supports.
Second, there is a tremendous push for schools to implement edtech powered by generative AI. While the original AI assistant was promising, our teachers could see in real time that the product got even stronger based on their feedback; 90% of our teachers reported that the tool made their jobs easier and more enjoyable.
Third, one of our most important considerations was limiting the edtech tools on our teachers’ already full plates. We wanted solutions that aligned with our goals and our high-quality curriculum.
When teachers find it seamless to embed a tool’s 20-minute lessons into their plans, they are more likely to adopt it. They can see students’ progress on the prompts in real time, and the tool suggests questions for the whole class to deepen collective understanding and ensure learning remains a social experience.
Having a starting point for discussion helps newer teachers anticipate what will best address the needs of each unique group of students. It also adds variety for longtime teachers who are always searching for powerful new approaches.
We will soon welcome new teachers and students to this ELA approach, and the positive results from the pilot have increased excitement among our staff about its expansion into more grades and schools for the 2025-26 school year.
We have learned so much and are moving forward to unlock more AI-powered possibilities, while always adhering to our district’s extensive protocol for data privacy, staying grounded in our values, committing to great teaching, and preparing our students for choice-filled lives.
