The Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent’s resignation this week under the cloud of a failed AI chatbot rollout and an FBI investigation could serve as a cautionary tale for other school districts as they consider adopting new and rapidly evolving technology, according to leadership experts.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho cited the need for the nation’s second-largest district to remain focused on students’ learning without distractions in his Sunday night resignation letter.
His letter addressed to students, families, teachers, staff, and the LAUSD community didn’t specify what those distractions were, but the final years of his tenure at LAUSD included an FBI raid of his home and office and the implosion of a $6 million initiative to build a custom district AI tool.
His resignation ends—for now—the career of one of the nation’s highest-profile superintendents with a penchant for making headlines by pushing back against the federal government and undertaking big initiatives.
Carvalho “was always willing to make big, ambitious bets and ... that boldness can sometimes cut both ways—that appetite for innovation that can land incredible outcomes for kids could also produce innovations that fall apart,” said Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Texas at Austin, who has extensively studied the superintendent profession.
In his resignation letter, Carvalho highlighted his accomplishments, including raising academic performance, expanding Advanced Placement participation, and reducing chronic absenteeism in the four years he led the 400,000-student district.
But Carvalho’s tenure will also be inextricably linked to a chatbot named “Ed” that the superintendent introduced with high hopes before it collapsed.
Carvalho bet big on the custom-built AI tool for the district in early 2024, touting it as a “personal assistant” for students and families that could—in multiple languages—answer questions about students’ grades and upcoming tests, and even help improve academics and attendance, among other ambitions.
But the $6 million initiative quickly unraveled as the company creating it, AllHere, furloughed nearly all its employees and its CEO departed. A company whistleblower also raised alarms over how AllHere handled sensitive student data, according to reporting by The 74.
In September 2024, the company filed for bankruptcy, and two months later, AllHere’s CEO, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was charged with fraud.
Then, in February of this year, the FBI searched Carvalho’s home and office, a move related to the contract with AllHere, sources confirmed with the Los Angeles Times. Carvalho spent his final months as LAUSD’s superintendent on paid administrative leave. Carvalho denied any wrongdoing through his lawyers and, to date, he has not been charged with any crimes.
LAUSD’s experience is a warning sign about needing to vet vendors
While many details aren’t known, and many factors are specific to LAUSD, the episode still offers lessons for other district leaders, say experts.
Education tools often work best to fix narrowly defined problems, and district leaders should be wary of any company that says its AI tool can do it all. Experts say that thoroughly vetting ed-tech companies and making sure student data is properly handled are also crucial to avoiding some of the same mistakes LAUSD made.
Transparency around contract decisions and ensuring multiple people are involved in vetting can help ensure that districts do their due diligence, even when promising tech falls short, White said. She cautioned district leaders against trusting word-of-mouth vendor recommendations without additional vetting.
“Increasingly, you have these very large, fascinating contracts with ed tech and artificial intelligence, and people are promising a lot of things for technology that’s evolving every single day,” White said. “So, just because you have a recommendation from someone who you trust doesn’t mean you don’t need to do your due diligence and make sure it’s a solid deal for your own district.”
LAUSD fallout could add to growing tech backlash in schools
The news coming out of LAUSD could add fuel to the rising ed-tech backlash seen across the country.
Concerns about the role of technology in schools have been increasing. Carvalho’s resignation is a warning sign of what could happen—a worst-case scenario—when there is a disconnect between the direction district leaders take and the expectations families have of the technology kids are exposed to in school, said Caitlin Sullivan, the CEO and co-founder of Leading Now, a network that offers communication support for superintendents and school system leaders.
As superintendent, the priority is to be an “exceptional listener” and responsive to community members’ “desires and expectations,” she said. They should do their best to ensure their districts’ use of technology aligns with a community vision.
“Having operating principles for the purpose of technology and the expected use of that technology against that purpose—that’s what superintendents can play a role in helping to define,” said Sullivan.
Natalie Milman, a professor of educational technology leadership at George Washington University, recommended deliberate testing of technology before rolling it out districtwide.
“Before rolling out any tool, [educators should conduct] some testing with a smaller group, getting some feedback from the actual people who will be using it, and then getting that public comment,” she said.
LAUSD’s attempt to launch an all-encompassing AI tool is not the first time an ambitious tech initiative has led to an FBI investigation for the district.
In 2013, prior to Carvalho’s tenure, the district announced it would provide all of its then-650,000 students with iPads, years before most districts moved to 1-to-1 computing during the COVID pandemic. However, the initiative faltered under a slow rollout, low uptake in classrooms, a lack of professional development for teachers, and an FBI investigation into how the district awarded contracts. The investigation ended without any charges being filed.
More recently, the LAUSD school board has taken a very different tack. Responding to parents’ concerns over the increasing amount of tech use in schools, the board voted in April to scale back classroom screen use, setting maximum in-school screen time limits for each grade level.
Carvalho has been in the national spotlight before
Carvalho is no stranger to the national spotlight and made his mark as a flashy superintendent not afraid to make headlines by undertaking new, large-scale initiatives or by pushing back against federal policies with which he disagreed.
Over the past year-plus, Carvalho—himself an immigrant from Portugal—has affirmed LAUSD’s commitment to immigrant families as the Trump administration ramped up deportation and enforcement activities and rescinded a longstanding policy that essentially placed schools and other “sensitive locations” off limits for immigration enforcement.
He made similar, strong-worded statements in support of immigrant students and their families in 2017, during Trump’s first term as president, when Carvalho was leading Florida’s Miami-Dade schools.
And LAUSD has been the target of recent federal scrutiny.
The U.S. Department of Education in May announced an investigation into LAUSD for allegedly reassigning—rather than removing—teachers accused of sexual misconduct. That was the latest in a trio of Trump administration investigations into the district. The other two focused on allegations that the district gave special and illegal preference to Black students in advanced courses and for providing smaller class sizes in schools with predominantly nonwhite student populations.
Before taking the helm at LAUSD in February 2022, Carvalho, a former science teacher, led Miami-Dade schools in Florida—today the nation’s third-largest district—for 14 years. He was hired in 2008, despite revelations of flirtatious emails exchanged with a local newspaper reporter who covered the district.
In 2018, Carvalho accepted the job of chancellor of New York City schools, the largest public school system in the country, but backed out just days later to stay in Miami.
He has received numerous national awards. He was named the 2014 Superintendent of the Year by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the 2018 Urban Superintendent of the Year by the Council of the Great City Schools.
LAUSD poised to begin new school year ‘on solid ground’
As LAUSD begins the search for its next superintendent, White, the University of Texas professor, urged district leaders to make space for staff, students, and community members to share feedback and concerns about district leadership and Carvalho’s ouster, as well as their hopes and priorities for his successor.
Allowing those opportunities, and being transparent throughout the process, can help build—and rebuild—trust, White said.
Andrés Chait, previously LAUSD’s chief of school operations, has served as acting superintendent since the district placed Carvalho on leave.
The district said this week that Chait will remain in that role until it hires a permanent replacement for Carvalho, though officials did not say when that process would begin, according to NBC News.
In a statement, the Los Angeles school board said it “remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership. Our focus remains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve.”
Regardless of when a new superintendent is hired, White said beginning the new school year with different leadership—even in an interim capacity—gives LAUSD a chance to start fresh and eliminate the instability that came with Carvalho’s administrative leave and open questions about his future with the district.
“It’s maybe not surprising that the district ... would want to enter a new year on solid ground,” White said. “My own research is pretty consistent on the fact that instability in this position can carry real costs, and this kind of change can help people move forward in a way uncertainty sometimes doesn’t allow for.”
