AI research project shows promise for improving virtual tutoring

The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees held its February Workshop on the 11th. A recap of the agenda is below.

1.      Roll Call. Delma Abalos and Dawn Miller were absent.

2.      Verification of compliance with open meetings requirements.

3.      In her opening comments, Interim Superintendent Dr. Keeley Boyer told Trustees this morning a national report cited ECISD as a District Success Story in recovering learning loss from the pandemic. The citation was quoted in the New York Times and other publications.     

4.      There was no public comment.  

5.      Trustees reviewed TASB Board Policy Update 124. Periodically, the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) makes recommendations for updates to local school board policies to ensure those policies remain in line with changes to the state’s legal policies. Eight (8) policies are included in this update. https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1406?meeting=671220.

6.      Report/Discussion Items

A.      Trustees received a report on a research project involving ECISD schools and the use of an AI Tutor Copilot with virtual math tutoring. Two researchers from the National Student Support Accelerator presented to Trustees their research on using artificial intelligence (AI) for real time support of virtual math tutors working with ECISD students. In all, nine (9) ECISD schools participated in this study; 1,787 students in grades 3-8 received tutoring from 874 tutors (429 tutors were in the treatment group, 450 tutors were in the control group).

The purpose of the research was to answer the following question: could an AI-based expert-informed aid provide tutors real-time suggestions for tutors and raise tutoring quality?

The study started by acknowledging that scaling high-quality tutoring is hard, and growing demand for virtual tutoring often results in employing novice tutors who may struggle to address student mistakes and, thus, miss prime learning opportunities. The AI Tutor Copilot was designed to support the tutor (not the student) by evaluating the student’s answer to a math question, then providing a question or an explanation of a concept or a hint for the tutor to use in their interaction with the student, guiding the student more effectively than they may have been able to, based on their own expertise. The tutor can use the AI Tutor Copilot prompts or not. A key takeaway from the study: lower quality tutors, particularly, benefit from the AI Tutor Copilot. Tutors clicking on the AI prompts saw students scoring 14 percentage points higher than those whose tutors were not using the prompts. Its use shifted a tutor’s language toward stronger pedagogy, explaining, guiding a student’s thinking, or affirming a correct answer rather than just giving the student the correct answer. It is the first Human AI large scale study done and is open source available for any vendor to use now. This research project was included in the Economic Report of the President transmitted to Congress in January. In looking ahead, this was a two-month project and only focused on exit ticket assessments in class, ongoing is a longer study with a focus on both exit ticket assessments and end-of-year test scores. The possibilities to expand this technology into other aspects of teaching are numerous.

 

B.      Trustees were presented the 2024-25 Targeted Improvement Plans. The Texas Education Agency requires TIPs (Targeted Improvement Plans) for schools who perform in the bottom 5% of Domain III-Closing the Gaps in the Accountability system. This year the campuses that fall under that qualifier are West Elementary, Burnet Elementary, Dowling Elementary, EK Downing Elementary, and Gonzalez Elementary. The principals from each of the five (5) schools presented their plans which focus on developing Effective Instruction one of the 5 Essential Levers of the Effective School’s Framework.       

 

7.      In her closing remarks, Dr. Boyer reminded Trustees that Monday is a district holiday unless there is inclement weather between now and Friday.

8.      The meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m.