Every day reveals new ways to utilize generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), enhancing productivity, creativity, and knowledge. With AI access at students’ fingertips, it is playing a large role in their social lives as well as their education and future careers. A key question we’ve been considering at SCORE: How do we effectively connect AI’s opportunity in education with the learning and career preparation students will need to be successful in life?
We believe all Tennessee students should be equipped with the knowledge and skills that prepare them for careers enabling economic independence. For education to unlock workforce opportunity, it must respond to evolutions in technology and the economy. Fostering environments for innovative pilot programs, engaging with partners to envision what’s possible, and implementing AI with principles for wise discovery are aspects of the work needed now to be the best partner for students.
AI in Education Trends
GenAI, which has shown incredible growth in a short time, is leading toward a paradigm shift in the way we think about teaching, learning, and career preparation. Starting with the release of chatGPT in 2022, many conversations focused on elevating risks — plagiarism, cheating, and data privacy — all concerns worthy of attention coming from a desire to set parameters for protection. In response, many states and national organizations developed frameworks for GenAI use in education. Tennessee passed a new law requiring all K-12 districts, public charter schools, and higher education institutions to adopt AI policies, and the Tennessee School Boards Association developed a template AI policy — one that many districts have adopted and others have adjusted to fit their local goals. Thoughtful policies are important to ensure that students and staff are able to safely use AI without inadvertently stymieing exploration that can lead to innovation.
SCORE Partner Convenings
With innovation in mind, SCORE began convening national leaders and Tennessee partners this year to discover the transformative potential of AI, build knowledge of GenAI, and explore emerging trends for AI in education.
We had the privilege of learning about the technical underpinnings of GenAI from Vanderbilt University’s Data Science Institute, hearing from the Center on Reinventing Public Education on how district leaders are implementing GenAI across the country, and exploring examples of how GenAI can integrate with teaching and learning in Tennessee. For instance, AI pilot programs in Hamilton County and Sumner County schools are helping students advance in math and English language arts while aiding teachers with assessment development, providing instructional feedback, and monitoring student progress. AI is being used to train medical students and provide better patient care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. And at Belmont University’s College of Education, GenAI is providing instructors with feedback on lecture discourse and student engagement with the content and their peers.
Early use cases like these are carving out new ways of thinking about teaching, learning, and career preparation, and this is only the beginning. AI has the potential to:
- Accelerate student learning. AI can analyze student learning and provide personalized guidance and materials, enabling individual tutoring. AI course assistants, for example, are seeing success in higher education of support to college students in mastering concepts and planning for a degree.
- Activate student creativity and problem-solving. AI can support students in career exploration, help them develop critical thinking skills, and redefine the learning experience to be driven by students. AI is anticipated to change 44% of core skills sought by employers in the next five years, so engaging students in AI literacy and hands-on projects will equip them with the self-efficacy and technology skills they’ll need.
- Help teachers teach better. AI can assist teachers in their lesson planning, increase access to materials that speak to student interests, and more effectively meet student needs and ability levels. AI tools can now provide teacher observation support for supervisors as they evaluate performance based on video evidence.
- Reduce teacher tasks not related to teaching. AI may help educators with scheduling, providing feedback, developing projects, and completing assessments — tasks that have been shown to take up 50% of teachers’ time.
Principles for Wise Discovery
Our partner discussions have been inspiring and informative, and it is clear this work will be elemental to student outcomes and teacher instructional practice. Our learnings helped identify important principles for Tennessee to keep in mind for GenAI to reach its full potential:
- Keep the human in the loop. Leverage AI to enhance teaching and learning, not to replace essential steps requiring human creativity and connection.
- Learn with and about AI through literacy and training. Embrace the exploration stage of new technology and provide educators and students with guidelines for how to leverage AI through prompt generation and exemplars.
- Research pilots and report learnings broadly. Learn from Tennessee schools and educators currently implementing AI and share reflections and student outcomes.
- Enable learning acceleration for all. Discover how AI offers the unique capability to support students with language translation needs, aid students requiring learning accommodations, and to generally reach students on different learning levels.
- Keep gaps in access in mind. Avoid the rise of a new digital divide; all schools and students should have the guidance needed to benefit from AI-powered technology.
- Ensure safety, ethics, and security. Prioritize safe technology practices so that AI tools used for teaching and learning adhere to data privacy and security policies.
Next on the Horizon
Reflections from SCORE’s partner convenings prompted ongoing questions Tennessee leaders should consider in planning for AI’s impact in education:
- What are Tennessee’s education capacity needs or instructional challenges that AI could support?
- How can Tennessee support innovative spaces for experimentation with AI in teaching, learning, and career preparation?
- What is needed to ensure Tennessee students learn how to use and leverage the potential of AI to be prepared for a rapidly evolving workforce?
- How does AI literacy for students and training for educators fit into or outside of existing computer science standards and endorsement programs?
GenAI will only be as useful as the creativity that a teacher or student — the human —can apply to it. But effective human use of GenAI is not possible if it is not taught nor practiced. Tennessee can and must be a leader for AI in education to prepare teachers and students to be competitive and successful in the age of AI.
SCORE hosted a virtual SCORE Institute, AI’s Impact on Education and Career Pathways, on January 13, 2025. Watch a recording of the webinar to hear from AI experts and leaders in K-12, higher education, industry, and economic development.