AI in Education – Part 2 of 3

4 - Can AI ease teacher workload as a recruitment, retention strategy?

K-12 leaders and experts weigh in on whether AI tools have the potential to make teachers’ jobs more manageable and if that can ease staffing challenges.

By: Anna Merod • Published Aug. 26, 2024

Teachers are swamped.

They’re working longer hours compared to other professionals, and their job-related stress often comes from managing student behavior, earning low salaries, and performing administrative work that isn’t tied to instruction, according to an educator survey by Rand Corp. released in June.

Furthermore, an April study by Pew Research Center also found that 8 in 10 teachers don’t have enough time in the day to complete all of their work. And 81% of those teachers said a major reason for that is they “just have too much work.”

As some school districts begin to pilot artificial intelligence tools, however, teachers could see some of their workload burden alleviated.

While not a guarantee, if districts are thoughtful about which AI tools and supports they provide to teachers, the technology has the potential to improve teacher retention by making the job more manageable, said Bree Dusseault, principal and managing director at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. The research and policy analysis center at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College focuses on innovative, evidence-based strategies to improve public education.

Dusseault said she has noticed two different ways districts are currently using AI to support teachers. The first is by improving their efficiency in daily tasks like lesson planning and communicating with families. Another is by providing tools such as tutoring or translation services that help teachers offer personalized learning to students, she said.

Anywhere generative AI tools can help teachers focus on their core roles and feel most effective with students, “I think that increases just enjoyment of the job and a sense of satisfaction,” Dusseault said.

How one Texas district is leveraging AI

There are many ways AI can help human tasks that typically take three to four hours to be completed in an instant, said Ángel Rivera, superintendent of Texas’ Mesquite Independent School District. In the case of teachers, that means they have more time to focus on students, he said.

In his 38,000-student school system, leaders are hoping a platform owned and developed by the district can leverage AI to help teachers better understand students before they even enter the classroom, Rivera said. The name for that platform, AYO, comes from a Yoruban word meaning “great joy.”

AYO’s components include a social-emotional learning mood check-in for students and a personalized learning tool and lesson planner for teachers, said Cara Jackson, the district’s chief technology officer.

The district first launched AYO in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, officials decided to relaunch the platform for renewed attention following the pandemic, Rivera and Jackson said. This also provided an opportunity to pilot newer features that use generative AI.

The mood check-in feature allows students to privately report how they’re feeling that day, which allows teachers to gauge students’ well-being in their classrooms. The tool can also more quickly connect students to counselors during the school day if they report a negative mood, Jackson said.

A newer addition to AYO this year is the lesson planning feature, which is aligned with the state’s curriculum standards, Jackson said. Based on AYO’s student surveys, teachers can better understand their students’ interests, and the AI tool can then suggest concepts for lesson plans based on topics that excite students.

“So AI helps inform, but the teachers — actually the humans — get to decide about the data that’s presented to them,” Jackson said. “Whether it’s about a student or whether it’s about a lesson … the human still has that option to say,