My parents first came to the United States in the 1970s to flee the cruelty and violence of Haiti’s dictator, François Duvalier, or “Papa Doc” as he was called. With their temporary visas expired, they became “undocumented immigrants.” My siblings and I remained in northern Haiti with my grandmother. It was only after my parents had a baby born in the United States that they received green cards and were able to petition for us to join them in New York City. I arrived in 1976, a 12-year-old who spoke multiple languages—except English, the one I needed to succeed in this country.
Like many English learners at the time, my progress was painfully slow, and it made me feel like an outsider. My school didn’t have classes for non-English-speaking students, and my teachers lacked guidance and training on how to support students like me.
Eventually, I learned English, graduated from high school, and went on to earn degrees in chemistry, science education, and school administration before becoming an educator, leading public schools in Chicago and Rochester, N.Y. Now, even in my current role as CEO of Digital Promise, I often imagine what those early years might have been like if I had the use of an AI tool that could instantly translate, scaffold, and support my learning. Would I have felt like an outsider for as long? Would teachers and English-speaking classmates have been more patient with me? What other opportunities might have surfaced? And what about other students who struggled with English more than I did? Could they have experienced different, better outcomes?
For district leaders considering strategies to support English learners in K-12 schools today, AI tools have the potential to offer instant support. These tools can not only support language acquisition but also help classmates and teachers understand English learners and the complexities of their culture.
From personal experience, I know how overwhelming it can be for district leaders to decide which instructional material will be most effective for English learners, as they progress at different rates and struggle with different language domains. But artificial intelligence can help tailor instruction by diagnosing individual strengths and weaknesses, adjusting difficulty in real time, and providing differentiated practice instead of one-size-fits-all lessons.
With the assistance of AI, district leaders can help ensure that English learners get targeted support that many classrooms simply don’t have capacity to provide. It’s a boon for teachers, too, who rarely have time to provide immediate, detailed feedback. Educators I speak with express excitement at being able to boost support for these students with assistive technology. Now, in addition to teacher-led instruction, they also have access to AI-powered instruction on grammar, vocabulary, and sentence organization, tailored specifically for them. Or platforms that offer conversational practice, pronunciation support, and build dialogue scenarios that mimic conversation students might have at school or at the grocery store. Early research shows programs like Grammarly and ChatGPT have the potential to have a positive impact for secondary English-learner students when incorporated into a writing workshop, including measurable gains in writing fluency, grammar, coherence, and, perhaps most importantly, confidence. However, these tools also present risks, including student-privacy and -data concerns; automatic scoring systems that produce disparities for English learners; and the potential for cultural bias and insensitivities when using tools based on poorly trained data sets.
The integration of AI in schools couldn’t be happening at a more urgent moment. As of 2021, about 5.3 million students in the nation are English learners. Imagine what AI could do to help them reach their full potential and support educators in providing transformative learning experiences.
Educators are already using AI-powered platforms to improve their instruction. According to an Education Week audience poll in February, 60% of 1,186 respondents said they had integrated AI into their lessons. A recent Walton Family Foundation and Gallup study on how teachers are using AI tools in the classroom found that 6 in 10 teachers used one for work, like lesson planning and preparation, during the 2024-25 school year. District leaders should pay attention. Used thoughtfully, these tools can make learning visible and achievable for all students.
While much of K-12 is hesitant to embrace AI tools, waiting too long could be detrimental to student learning, including for English learners. The question for students centers on whether they have reliable access to the internet and devices that can support AI programs. And this also leads to the concerns around the unintentional marginalization of students and the resulting loss of opportunities for them to develop teacher and peer relationships. But there are potential solutions. Educators should start small with pilot programs for English learners, leverage existing digital infrastructure to integrate low-cost AI tools, and prioritize teacher training with the goal of their understanding both the capabilities and limitations of these technologies.
All educators need to build the skills to integrate AI effectively and ethically. To support the effective use of AI tools, state and district leaders should receive training to help guide their staffs, including when it comes to AI-focused professional development. State and philanthropic partners also have a critical role to play: They can fund research that champions responsible training and adoption for the field. Developers have a role to play, too. Involving students, especially English learners, directly with the designing process and investing in learner-variability research can help ensure AI tools are designed to meet students’ needs, no matter their race, income, disability, or language.
To be clear, AI is not a replacement for educators, but it can be a powerful ally in the pursuit of academic excellence. District leaders must be bold and drive their schools to adopt AI to create opportunities for deep, consistent, and powerful learning for all students, especially their English learners. We can’t afford to wait.
