Warner Educational Leadership faculty, Center for Learning in the Digital Age (LiDA) staff, and faculty from outside education came together Wednesday Nov. 9 for the most recent installment of the Warner School of Education series, “Warner Wednesday Talks: AI & K-12 Leadership — Findings from an Interdisciplinary Study,” to discuss the results of their year-long survey study on using artificial intelligence (AI) at the administrative level in K-12 education. The talk covered their findings, takeaways, and recommendations for future research and applications.
Through surveying more than 100 principals, superintendents, district administrators, and district technology specialists, the study gained insight into educational leaders’ perspectives on AI use at each organizational level. It aimed to identify their perceived issues, benefits, and needs and add to existing literature.
The study first established participants’ knowledge about AI. Of those surveyed, only 5.6% of principals and 16.7% of superintendents reported being very/extremely knowledgeable, whereas 37.9% of district technological and 31% of curricular leaders reported these same levels.
Despite a low level of knowledge, all educational roles reported significant usage of AI. Leaders were most likely to use AI for written communication, with around 80% of respondents reporting at least occasional use of AI as a communication aid, and least likely to use it in the creation of budgets and course schedules, with around 90% reporting no usage in this area.
Though current administrative use was primarily limited to things like writing emails, revising documents, and brainstorming ideas, respondents identified multiple potential future benefits.
Respondents overwhelmingly believed that teachers would benefit from AI, indicating that AI could help teachers save time on routine tasks, individualize instruction, interpret assessment data, design lessons, and understand how to teach students about AI. The panelists showed an instructional video explaining that AI-powered tools such as Diffit consolidate sources to create readings for students based on their reading level and language proficiency, then generate multiple-choice and essay questions. These kinds of curricular tools could be vital in lessening educators’ workloads, they said.
Respondents were similarly optimistic about the benefits of AI to students. Their highest perceived benefit was the ability for students to learn responsible and ethical use of AI, with over 81% of respondents considering that to be very/extremely beneficial. Other aspects were the ability to receive personalized learning, provide access to tools to aid students with special needs, save time to allocate to higher-level tasks, and be prepared for future jobs.
To achieve these goals, administrators are most focused on the need for AI training and educational resources. Their highest priority, and a continued goal of the Warner School, is identifying a standard, reliable AI toolkit that could be tailored for teachers and taught to students.
Conversely, their lowest reported priority was developing a tool to identify student misuse of AI, and most considered their current academic dishonesty policies sufficient. They said that as of Spring 2024, most schools have not yet implemented new administrative policies, recognizing the need for additional leader and educator training, but are eager to do so in the near future. One thing that all could agree on was that AI is here to stay, and continued research, education, and training is imperative.
Warner Educational Leadership faculty will continue to investigate this topic and are currently testing an educational toolkit created in response to this study.
