As a school leader or district administrator, if you haven’t asked an artificial intelligence tool to draft at least one email, you’re probably in the minority.
As AI chatbots, assistants, and other tools become more sophisticated, educators have started to use them in many ways: to cut down on paperwork, analyze large swathes of data, and generate lesson plans they’d otherwise spend hours on.
An EdWeek Research Center survey conducted in December asked 990 educators—teachers, principals, and district administrators—how they use AI to complete their daily tasks. Teachers said AI tools help them create quizzes and lesson plans; principals mostly use AI to draft emails and newsletters.
In a set of open-ended responses, superintendents and other district administrators indicated that while drafting emails is a top use case, they’ve also used AI to generate reports and presentations, and on the rare occasion, use an AI tool to catch students cheating with AI.
Here are 22 ways district leaders use AI.
District leaders use AI for busywork
I use it to edit email responses, letters, etc., or other paperwork-related items.
Help in writing emails, letters of reference, building rubrics.
First draft of communications to stakeholders, summary of artifacts created during meetings, summary of and action steps following meetings.
To summarize reports (create executive summaries), draft emails, and compare state to national standards.
Writing reports and executive summaries. Filing for the new E-Rate CyberSec program. Analyzing and summarizing multiple memos from different sources on the same subject. Writing observation statements based on collected notes and the [Charlotte] Danielson rubric.
I use AI to craft and revise communication to administrators, staff and stakeholders.
AI can be a brainstorming partner
I use AI [large language models] to provide first-look drafts of documents. I also use it to generate ideas for projects that I am starting on.
Having AI write questions, letters of reference, memos that I can then adapt to what I'm doing.
I use it to create letters and help improve statements needing to be sent to the community; I have also used it to make notes/bullet points of video training/informational webinars. I use my Alexa daily for to-do or follow-up reminders, as well as to add items to my calendar.
I use AI daily—from helping to craft responses to emails, to creating PD, and as a thought partner to prompt me through decisionmaking.
ChatGPT as a brainstorm partner, and a tool to summarize a large amount of content.
Generate ideas, tweak communication, threat assessment responses, holiday messages.
I use AI daily. Interview questions were developed [through AI] using a job posting, job description, and position expectations. AI is used for meeting "note catchers" and transcription. It has been used for creating rubrics for evaluation, developing crisis intervention plans, parent communication, creating social media marketing posts, professional development planning, stakeholder survey development, survey analysis, schedule creation—and so much more!
I use it to reformulate my words when I have word counts that I have to meet for submissions. I have also used it to generate an image to go along with a presentation. I also use it to take information and make it applicable to different audiences.
Helping teachers and students
I have used ZeroGPT to investigate the suspected use of AI in student writing.
To help students develop ideas.
Create assessments and questions.
To make lesson plans.
[I ask AI to] tell me what the word "savory" means. Show me a great lesson on teaching negative integers to a 5th grader.
I have created several AI tools to assist teachers in the designing of learning.
Some administrators are holding out on AI
Personally, I don't. Using AI defeats the purpose of school.
I don't use AI.
