More teachers are receiving professional development on artificial intelligence this year, according to a new survey from the EdWeek Research Center.
This fall, 50% of teachers reported having at least one single professional development session or more on using AI in their work, according to a nationally representative survey of 693 educators conducted between Sept. 24 and Nov. 3.
That’s an 8-percentage-point increase from the October 2024 survey results, when 42% of teachers said the same. And it’s more than triple the 2023 survey results, when 13% of teachers said they had received at least a little training on incorporating AI in their work.
The big jump shows the significant progress school districts and education organizations have made in ensuring that teachers are knowledgeable about this fast-evolving technology.
The results are “pretty amazing,” said Pat Yongpradit, the chief academic officer for Code.org and a leader of TeachAI, an initiative to support schools in using and teaching about AI.
“We’re getting out of the early-adopter phase. We’re entering the later-adopter phase, including the phase where folks who were hesitant initially are now just coming around to it.”
In the three years since ChatGPT first gained widespread attention in the K-12 world, AI has already become more embedded into the many tools that students and teachers use daily. That’s why experts say it’s increasingly important for teachers to learn about the technology so they can use it responsibly in their work and model appropriate use for students.
The Trump administration has made advancing the use of AI in education one of its top educational priorities, and its focus has included training teachers on the technology. Major technology companies have also partnered with education organizations to provide free teacher training and resources.
The survey results show that the work that education organizations are doing to provide AI-related training sessions has “had a great impact,” Yongpradit said.
There needs to be more investment in teacher PD, experts say
But there’s still more work to be done, according to experts. The most effective professional development is not one-and-done, they say.
“We’re still at the beginning of all this stuff,” Yongpradit said. “A third of teachers have only gone to one one-time [session], and that one-time [session] could’ve been really basic.”
The good news, Yongpradit said, is that AI in education is “like a marathon.”
Those who have received the most professional development are only at the two-mile mark; the person who hasn’t even started running is only two miles behind—not 10 miles behind, he said. The people at the two-mile mark are still trying to figure things out, as well.
Lisa Herring, the former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools and current CEO of New Leaders, a nonprofit organization focused on training school leaders, said there’s an urgent need to help educators become familiar with the fast-evolving technology.
“If we expect educators to meet the pace of the reimagined classroom, where technology is not an accessory but a core element of teaching and learning, then we must urgently invest in their training,” she said in a statement.
In the coming months and years, learning about AI and how to use it will need to be “built into the PD system,” Yonpradit said, “so that the most hesitant teachers or teachers who don’t have time can find the time, can get paid to attend these [sessions].”
School and district leaders need training, too
The EdWeek Research Center survey also found that school and district leaders are more likely to have received at least one one-time professional development session on AI than teachers.
One reason for this could be that administrators hold more positive views about the technology, while teachers are more hesitant, according to a 2024 study from the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute.
School and district leaders also have greater flexibility to attend professional development sessions, Yongpradit said.
Still, it makes sense that leaders are the ones getting more training right now, he said. “That’s their job—to think about preparing the entire system for the future, what guidance to lay out, how this might impact the people in their system.”
Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.
