The U.S. Department of Education announced this week another proposed priority for discretionary grant programs: advancing the use of artificial intelligence in education.
The proposed supplementary grantmaking priority would “promote the appropriate integration of AI into education,” as well as provide training for educators, and foster early exposure to AI concepts and technology to develop an AI-ready workforce, according to the draft published in the Federal Register on July 21.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize education and support improved outcomes for learners,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a press release. “It drives personalized learning, sharpens critical thinking, and prepares students with problem-solving skills that are vital for tomorrow’s challenges.”
The recommendation comes three months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that calls for infusing AI throughout K-12 education, including training educators to incorporate it into their daily tasks and teaching students how to use it effectively. The order requires the education secretary to issue guidance on using formula and discretionary grant funds to improve education outcomes using AI.
While AI technologies have been around for decades, attention to them spiked in 2022 following the release of ChatGPT, a generative AI tool that can produce human-like conversational responses to prompts. Since then, districts have been grappling with what role the rapidly evolving technology should play in classrooms.
Considering the uncertainty around federal school funding, as the president continues to withhold more than $5 billion from states and districts, this proposed priority is “a nice signal” to school districts that it’s OK to use federal funds for AI-related activities, said Richard Culatta, the CEO of ISTE+ASCD.
But whether there will actually be grants to apply for, and whether the Education Department has the expertise to support K-12 schools in this initiative, remains to be seen, Culatta said, noting that the department’s office of education technology was shut down earlier this year.
“These are great priorities,” Culatta said. But there’s a “difference between priorities that are just on paper, and priorities that actually get implemented with support behind them, and I hope we see that.”
What the proposed priorities include
The proposed priority to advance AI in education is broken down into two categories: expanding the understanding of AI and expanding the appropriate use of AI. Within those categories, the department has provided a list of what it would be interested in seeing from future grant proposals, including plans to:
- Support the integration of AI literacy skills and concepts into teaching and learning practices;
- Expand offerings of AI and computer science education in K-12;
- Provide professional development for educators on the integration of the fundamentals of AI into their respective subject areas;
- Partner with state or local education agencies to encourage dual-enrollment course offerings to earn credentials in AI-related coursework;
- Integrate AI-driven tools into classrooms to personalize learning, improve student outcomes, and support differentiated instruction.
Pat Yongpradit, the chief academic officer of Code.org, a nonprofit that promotes computer science education, applauded the proposal, especially because it doesn’t just focus on passively learning about AI technologies.
“There’s a call to awareness, but there’s also calls to action,” he said.
Yongpradit said he was glad the draft acknowledges that computer science education is foundational for AI literacy, and that the work of integrating AI in education should be interdisciplinary.
He agreed with the department’s definition of AI literacy, too, which states: “The technical knowledge, durable skills, and future ready attitudes required to thrive in a world influenced by AI. It enables learners to engage, create with, manage, and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks, and implications.”
“This is a very empowering definition,” said Yongpradit, who also leads the TeachAI initiative. “It doesn’t equate AI literacy with prompt engineering and only that. There’s way more to it.”
Culatta added that the department’s inclusion of using AI to improve teacher training and evaluation in its proposed priorities is a good idea.
“That’s often left out of the conversation,” he said.
What experts say is missing from the proposed priorities
What’s missing from the current version of the proposed priorities on AI, however, is ensuring that AI tools are built with student learning in mind, Culatta said.
“All these things are great, but they assume that the AI tools are actually performing as they should,” he said.
Additionally, there should be a focus on “creating a healthy digital culture in schools,” Culatta said.
Schools are being encouraged to step up their AI use and integration, but at the same time, at least 31 states and the District of Columbia are already restricting student cellphone use or planning to do so. Culatta emphasized that navigating those priorities means ensuring students know how to use technology in “ways that aren’t dysfunctional and distracting.”
For Yongpradit, what’s missing is a focus on researching AI’s impact on youth social-emotional and mental health.
“We need people to figure this stuff out, and that’s why it needs to be called out as an explicit priority in the language,” Yongpradit said
The Education Department is accepting comments on the proposed priority on AI until Aug. 20, after which it will respond to the comments and then put out the final version. Submit comments here.
The proposed priority focused on AI is in addition to the priorities on evidence-based literacy, educational choice, and returning education to the states, which the department proposed in May.
