SCORE report highlights the promise of AI in education

A stock photo of someone using a laptop.

A new memo from the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) says that more than half of U.S. teachers have never used artificial intelligence tools, despite the growing popularity of AI-driven ed-tech platforms and their potential to enhance instruction.

According to the memo’s key insights, students can benefit from teacher engagement with generative AI (GenAI) tools in particular, adding that those tools can be used for creating visuals and designing activities that make lessons more engaging. The memo noted that while generative AI platforms like ChatGPT are “no replacement for the expertise of a teacher,” the technology can be very helpful for content creation and lesson planning.

“AI is an advancing field with rapidly improving capabilities. Teachers should learn how to use it now so that they can leverage it even more effectively in the future, as well as contribute their voices to steer how the technology develops,” one of the memo’s key insights read. 

The SCORE memo recommended that teachers should combine GenAI’s capability to quickly perform large amounts of creative work with their own professional expertise.

“Good practice is to delegate the task of creating a list of options to AI, but a teacher should choose the best options from that list, review them, and edit them as necessary. With enough practice collaborating with AI, teachers can become highly competent [large language model] users, saving time and effort that can be leveraged on higher impact tasks,” the memo read.

SCORE analysts noted that in addition to generative AI tools that use large language models (LLMs), text-to-image models like Microsoft Designer can make it easier to “create custom, high-quality, and royalty-free visuals that can be used to improve accessibility and engagement.”

“The easiest way to freely experiment with the text-to-image models is the Microsoft Designer Image Creator,” the memo read. “Previously, educators who wanted to use visuals in their educational material faced the option of either a potentially unsuccessful internet search or the laborious task of making a visual from scratch.”

The memo added that AI capabilities will continue to grow in “exciting and unexpected ways” in the years to come, amid advancements in the emerging technology. It said that the promise of AI in Tennessee school districts “hinges on the creativity and professional expertise” of teachers.

“There is a real opportunity for innovation in education if educators are equipped with knowledge of and experience with AI. But crucially, AI is unlike any technology before and can behave in ways that don’t always make sense, so there’s no substitute for hands-on exploration. Thankfully, there are a plethora of AI tools that are easily accessible, and educators can start using and learning in just minutes,” the memo read.

“Tennessee needs bold, innovative educators to explore the frontier of AI, learn how the technology can work for them, and use it to the benefit of our students.”