New York City school superintendents are boasting that instructors use artificial intelligence (AI) to teach kids reading comprehension.
In an opinion article for education policy outlet The74, superintendents Cristine Vaughan and Celeste Terry of the Bronx and Brooklyn districts said they are testing new AI tools that analyze student responses, guides them toward predefined interpretations of assigned texts, and provide discussion questions based on “misconceptions” the system identifies in those responses. The two claim that using AI to teach kids helps “increase student thinking” and “foster human connection.”
“We did not want the entire class to become tech-powered; rather, we targeted the AI toward the most challenging parts of the lessons, when students were doing close reading and writing,” the educators write, explaining that students are first assigned to small discussion groups.
The middle schoolers then respond to questions the AI derives from the curriculum, and the system analyzes the group’s answers in real time, sometimes prompting them to elaborate or reconsider and generating follow-up questions to guide their understanding.
