Urban Assembly, a network of small public high schools in New York City, is partnering with the American Institutes of Research to develop an AI-powered tool that can help instructional coaches analyze videos of teachers delivering lessons and offer feedback.

The tool aims to measure how often students and teachers are talking, laughing, and yelling, as well as evaluate the teacher’s language as “positive,” “respectful,” or “insulting.” The program is meant to be supportive and highlight what teachers do well, not just where they need to improve.

The AI tool won’t replace instructional coaches but will save them time by pointing them to relevant sections of the video, producing audio transcripts, and quickly gathering data that would take humans hours to compile. The tool will initially roll out to the 21 schools in the Urban Assembly network, though the network hopes to eventually expand its use. The cost of developing, testing, and implementing the tool over two years is around $500,000.

The use of AI in teacher coaching brings up questions about how accurately the technology can capture subtle classroom interactions, how useful its data will be, and whether it will be skewed by biases. Some teachers are open to the idea of assistance from the AI tool, but have a healthy amount of skepticism.

The AI tool may miss out on meaningful moments from a classroom video that don’t fit cleanly into one of the categories it’s meant to track, but proponents argue that it’s a worthwhile tradeoff if it can expand the number of teachers participating in the program.

Here are some ways AI can help teachers improve classroom performance:

• Personalized learning – AI can analyze student data like test scores, assignments, attendance, etc. to identify individual strengths and weaknesses. It can then customize learning plans and content for each student.
• Adaptive learning – As students work through online lessons and assessments, AI can adapt the content difficulty, examples, problems, etc. based on their responses. This helps keep students engaged and progressing at their own pace.
• Predictive analytics – AI can predict which students may be falling behind or at risk of failing based on patterns in their data. Teachers can then provide targeted interventions and support.
• Automated grading – AI can grade written assignments, essays, math problems, etc. faster and more consistently than humans. This frees up teachers’ time for other tasks.
• Intelligent tutoring – AI tutoring systems can provide individualized instruction, feedback and practice to help reinforce concepts students are struggling with.
• Attendance/engagement tracking – AI tools can track student attendance, participation, time spent on tasks etc. to identify disengaged students early.
• Data-driven insights – AI dashboards and reports analyze classroom data to surface trends, best practices and areas for improvement to help teachers enhance their strategies.
• Individualized feedback – AI can analyze student work and provide timely, personalized feedback to scaffold their learning and drive better outcomes.

Overall, AI can be a huge benefit for teachers in the future. It certainly can add to the depth of learning and even help students become more interested in the subject content, ultimately aiding them in their education and preparation for higher learning.

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