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Thousands of teachers are demonstrating each school day how to get artificial intelligence in education right. Policymakers, school system leaders and supporters of K-12 education should pay attention.

I have an unusual window into what’s happening in classrooms as CEO of DonorsChoose, which provides resources in 90% of U.S. public schools. Each year, 200,000 teachers post requests on our site.

Since the 2022–23 school year, requests for AI-related tools have surged more than 200%. But what’s interesting isn’t the growth. It’s the purpose.

Teachers are asking, overwhelmingly, for AI-enabled tools to reach students who have been left behind for decades: kids with disabilities as well as those learning English. In fact, 86% of requests are aimed at meeting the needs of students who have historically been underserved. In other words, teachers are turning to AI not only to save themselves time (although it can do that); nearly 9 in 10 are using it to get essential tools to the students who need them most.

For example, a middle school teacher near Atlanta requested AI-powered translation pens. With a simple scan, students can hear text read aloud or translated into more than 100 languages. For children who are learning English, or who struggle with reading comprehension, a $90 pen transforms their school day from frustrating to fulfilling. DonorsChoose has provided hundreds of these pens to teachers, along with more than 1,500 translation devices of other types.

In Chicago, an elementary school STEM teacher looked to AI to modify classroom materials when a child isn’t understanding a lesson.

In Miami, a middle school math teacher requested software that responds to students’ answers with immediate feedback that builds confidence rather than deflating it. Meanwhile, at another Miami middle school, a computer science teacher helps students get under the hood of machine learning by training robots to recognize and react to images. The project opens up discussions about ethics, real-world applications and how AI depends on what humans feed it.

In Detroit, high school educator Carrie Russell uses AI tools to effectively give every student a personalized tutor, expanding her capacity to teach each learner. She’s also mentoring other teachers about how to ethically and confidently incorporate AI tools into student learning.

These teachers aren’t asking for anti-cheating software or ways to monitor screen time, which is where much of the public debate is focused. They are experimenting and adapting tools that work for themselves and their students, without waiting for top-down guidance.

It shouldn’t be surprising that teachers are forging ahead and deploying AI in practical ways without directives from their schools and districts. Teachers have always been first responders to children’s needs.

In 2011, when American education underwent a seismic shift with states’ introduction of new academic standards, classroom teachers sounded the alarm on poor curriculum quality and misalignment to the new standards. Instead of waiting for the market or policy to catch up, they created materials that met the higher bar — and shared them with peers. 

More recently, on DonorsChoose, educators flagged the COVID pandemic’s effects on student mental health long before they became a national concern. We saw teachers request food for hungry students when SNAP benefits were disrupted last fall. And we routinely see teachers mobilize following natural disasters to replace what’s suddenly gone from their classrooms and restore some normalcy in their communities.

AI is the latest disrupter in education. It’s an opportunity to move toward a future when technology expands human potential rather than replaces it, where fairness is built into the design and where every student can experience moments of joy, discovery and magic. Teachers are showing what that can look like — one classroom at a time.

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